Rush Limbaugh gave us a wonderful example of this upon the occasion of George Steinbrenner's death:
"That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires," the radio commentator said Tuesday on his show after the New York Yankees owner died at age 80. "He fired a bunch of white guys as managers left and right."
It's pointed out by a defender of Limbaugh's, perhaps positing that unrestrained capitalism is a force for equality, that the quote is taken out of context. Context doesn't really help.
George Steinbrenner has passed away at age 80. That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires. George Steinbrenner, the classic capitalist. Everybody around him became wealthy. Like most successful capitalists, he made the people around him wealthy, and a lot of African-American millionaires along the way, and at the same time he fired a bunch of white guys as managers, left and right. Steinbrenner hasn't been himself for the past two or three years, but nevertheless what a man he was and what a fixture and a character he was in Major League Baseball."
Steinbrenner did not make random black people millionaires. He made very talented, very dedicated, very hard working people millionaires. Some of these people were white, some were black, some hispanic, but their defining traits had nothing to do with race. Unless you're a racist.
Steinbrenner also did fire people- people he felt weren't performing well enough. Again, race is irrelevent here, performance was. Not to Rush, who clearly sees it as remarkable that Steinbrenner would pay blacks millions of dollars, but fire white guys.
That's right, Rush, white guys can be fired.
*This works for misogynists and homophobes, too. If default "people" are men or heterosexuals, you have a problem.
**Obviously, there are legitimate reasons to specify race, for example, when discussing experiences particular to one group and not others.
