Racism is far more than some gump coach using the "N-word"

Get the Point!

While it has yet to garner major headlines, Mark Taylor, a rather obscure Georgia athletic trainer who has developed relationships with some not so obscure college football coaches like Alabama's Nick Saban, Georgia's Kirby Smart, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney, has gone viral over the past several days for a video that he shot of himself spewing the "N-word" and other racial slurs—while threatening to lynch Black women in Atlanta. 

Mark Taylor, a white high school athletic trainer with a predominantly Black clientele in Houston County, Georgia, pictured with (clockwise) Alabama Coach Nick Saban, Georgia Coach Kirby Smart, former Florida Coach Dan Mullen, and Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney…

While totally anecdotal evidence, just about every comment that I have read this week from people of all races has blasted Taylor for, well, being a racist!

While I agree that Taylor is a racist (and strongly suspect from his looks and slurred speech patterns that he may be high on cocaine or crystal methamphetamines), what really piques my interest is how easily some of the same folks on social media can conclude that Taylor is a racist because of his racial slurs, but can't see their own biases or, most crucially, that systemic racism is far deeper—and that the politicians that they support are far more destructive than one meth head idiot saying the "N-word." 

Lest we forget that just last week, Tennessee MAGA Republicans expelled two young Black Democratic State representatives, Justin Pearson of Memphis and Justin Jones of Nashville, for leading a peaceful march for gun control in the state legislature with their white Democratic colleague, Gloria Johnson. While the two have since been reinstated by their local jurisdictions, the fact that Johnson, a white woman, led the same march but was not expelled is crystal clear that race matters in the eyes of the very MAGA Republicans who cheered when Pearson and Jones were kicked out.

Tennessee State Representatives Pearson, Johnson, and Jones…

To me, the age old ideological divide between the right and the left is one thing, as reasonable minds can disagree on whether the federal government should be limited (traditional conservatism) or expanded (traditional liberalism); we can agree to disagree on whether the American military should be aggressive in foreign affairs or take an isolationist stance; we can take different points of vantage as to whether tax rates should be raised among the wealthy—or a flat tax should be initiated that's proportional per economic background.

But there should NEVER be any "agree to disagree" on human dignity and basic rights under the U.S. Constitution!

You see, ever since 2016, when Donald Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination over far more qualified conservative candidates due to his facility with stoking the "culture wars" against "The Blacks," "The Mexican Drug Lords," and any non-White Christians, other racists have come out of their caves in state and local politics and taken Trump's banal rhetoric and turned it into policies that are taking America rapidly back into the openly racist Jim Crow era. 

To be clear, I believe that Georgia athletic trainer Mark Taylor is a racist cur who I suspect will not be in business much longer now that Black parents realize how he feels about the Black boys that he trains, but he is insignificant next to systemic racism and white supremacy that in recent years:

Has fueled Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican dominated legislature to ban Black history and books that "make white children ashamed,” while gutting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in state programs and higher education institutions...

Has fueled efforts in Republican dominated Mississippi to carve out a special white enclave in Jackson, the state's capital that's predominantly Black, so that wealthy whites are not a part of the city's tax revenue or justice system oversight...

Has fueled efforts by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott (and Mr. DeSantis) to round up scared immigrants and ship them to Martha's Vineyard and Washington, D.C.—often far away from their loved ones who were shipped elsewhere much like the families of enslaved Blacks were torn apart prior to the Civil War...

Texas Gov. Abbott with former President Trump…

While but three examples among many, my point this morning is that a racist meth zombie like trainer Taylor is one thing, but governmental entities and leaders that punish people based upon the color of their skin, their religion, or their sexual orientation is something far more serious—and in direct contravention of a Constitution that, on paper, requires "equal justice under the law." 

Thus, if you have blasted trainer Taylor and declared his racial slurs “outrageous” on social media this week, but are still a MAGA hat wearing supporter of Trump, DeSantis, Abbott and the like, go look in the mirror and realize that the reflection staring back at you is cut from the same bigoted cloth—even if you have the tact to refrain from using the “N-word” in public…