The term “racially tinged”

Charlottesville, 2017, described by The Economist as “racially tinged”.

The term “racially tinged” (by 1926), or “tinged with racial overtones”, is a mealy-mouthed euphemism for “racist”. It is adored by the New York Times, largely avoided by the BBC, and used by both Blacks and Whites.

The Economist uses it, they whose style guide admonishes writers to avoid “trembling racial sensibilities” and “mealy-mouthed euphemisms”. They spoke of the “racially tinged violence in Charlottesville” – the riot in 2017 where literal neo-Nazis and the Klansmen violently defended a Confederate statue and chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

Some use it interchangeably with “racist”, like Joan Walsh in “What’s the Matter with White People?” (2012):

“There is no denying that racism drove some of the right’s abuse of Obama: there were just too many racist protest placards, offensive viral e-mails, and disgusting simian imagery in Photoshop caricatures. All of those could be, and usually were, dismissed as the work of bad actors at the Republican fringe. Yet mainstream Republicans rarely rejected the racially tinged Obama hatred; some even encouraged it.”

Others use it to avoid the word “racist”, like the New York Times on September 26th 2018:

“Angry Colleague Tells Congressman What to Do With ‘Racist Ad’

“Sept. 26, 2018

“A racially tinged campaign attack ad released by Representative Chris Collins has drawn the opposite of its intended effect — causing a fellow House member to criticize him in unusually caustic terms. …”

The article uses the word “racist” nine times, but always in quoted speech. Congressman Ted Lieu was willing to call the ad “racist”, but not the New York Times.

A month earlier the Associated Press ran this article:

“Analysis: Trump still flirts with racially tinged rhetoric”

It never called Trump a racist – except in quoted speech, and only once when Omarosa does it.

This is not new with the 2010s and the rise of Trump. It first became common in news reports in the 1950s with the rise of the civil rights movement and the “racially tinged” White backlash.

In 1957 the Associated Press itself used the term. As the US watched Little Rock Central High School admit its first Black students at bayonet point, the AP called the actions of the Segregationist League of Central High Mothers “racially tinged”.

The R-word: The whole trouble is the word “racist”:

1. White people have made it into a huge insult that can only be easily applied to the most extreme cases, like the Klan and neo-Nazis.
2. Whites have narrowed “racist” to just the personal and have made it hard to prove by making it a thing of intentions, not actions. Which makes it easy for them to deny they are racist since no one can read their innermost thoughts.
3. Most White people are afraid to call out racism in other White people. Not rocking the boat is one of the Club Rules.

Therefore it is easier to call a person’s actions or words “racially tinged” than “racist”. “Racially tinged” is a perception, a seeming. “Racist” requires mind reading or rare personal confession.

– Abagond, 2018.

Sources: Townhall (image); “What’s the Matter with White People?” (2012) by Jon Walsh; Boston Review (2018); New York Times (2018); AP (2018); The Economist (2017).

See also:

• Whitespeak
  • The R-word
• the White Club
  • How to become White
• Donald Trump
  • Charlottesville riot
  • Trump is an average racist
• Elizabeth Eckford – Little Rock
• Omarosa
• The press
  • How the press is soft on racism
  • The Economist
  • New York Times
  • Associated Press

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