noo yawk mag
i'm growing just a little sick of intellectual laziness from supposedly educated people, especially those who are the very model of the closing race-gap.On a short flight to New York recently, I was sitting behind two white, well-dressed twentysomethings chattering loudly and uninhibitedly about going to clubs and travel plans and the possibility of living in New Jersey. Then came the question: So who are you voting for?
I was for Hillary, but now Im kind of undecided, volunteered the first woman.
Are you a Democrat? asked the second.
Yeah. But I think I might go with McCain. Its just that, well, I dont know. You know. Her voice dropped. I leaned forward to hear better. You kind of hate to say it aloud, but Here her voice dropped again, to a murmur lost in the roar of the jet engines, and I missed whatever came next.
Lets start with this concession: I have no idea what that young woman actually said. In a perfect world, I suppose that would be the end of the story and I would go back to minding my own business. In the context of contemporary political discourse, however, it did cross my mind that if this conversation were presented on one of those finish the sentence cultural-literacy tests, then pretty much every American, of whatever creed, color, or class, would have exactly the same guess as to how the woman completed her thought.
I think theres some consensus, in other words, about the one thing in America we really hate to say aloud. Yet by refraining from saying audibly that-which-must-not-be-spoken, was the young womans political choice rendered rational, neutral, pure? Conversely, if I were to spell it out here, would I be the one accused of playing the race card?