The Clintons: A Fact and a Thought Experiment

On January 26, 1998, President Clinton went on national television to speak to the American people and to try and save his Presidency. Among the things that he said was the memorable, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." That is the fact.

For the thought experiment you must think about the meeting that undoubtedly took place prior to the decision to go on national television and lie to the American people. The meeting would have included two or three of the President's most trusted advisers, and would have included Hillary Clinton. The arguments for the lie would include a discussion of the meaning of  "sexual relations" and whether what took place with Miss Lewinsky would qualify. The advisors obviously concluded that they could do a semantic dance around the President's relationship with Monica, and he would not really be telling a lie.  And someone must surely have said; "What happens if Monica pushes back and tries to embellish upon her sexual relationship with the President" (remember the blue dress). One of the advisers probably said: "We have that covered. We have met with Miss Lewinsky and told her that we have spoken with all her closest male and female friends and have dug up lots of dirt, and that if she speaks up, we will destroy her. In other words, she has been told what would happen to her if she says anything that contradicts what the President will say."

What I'm sure of is that such a meeting took place before President Clinton went on television to tell his lie. I am also sure that Hillary Clinton was among those close advisors. I am also sure that they discussed the possibility of "push back," by whom and how it would be handled. What was actually said is part of the thought experiment.  This was a high stakes game and I can only imagine the options that were considered.        

On Identities and Social Construction

All the people in my neighborhood who were called "shorty" were short. And all the people with dark skin were called "moolies," for mouliyan (eggplant in Italian--get it?). We may not have been school-smart but we knew that there were things called "facts"---not having a job was a fact; the police were a fact; my absent father was a fact. There was no social construction in this stuff, and no matter what you may wish for, it didn't change the facts. No matter how hard me and my buddies tried to get Junior Emerson into the neighborhood park swimming pool by claiming that he was Puerto Rican, it never worked. Junior was a light-skinned "moolie" but not light enough.

The social science mantra that race is a social construct is an idea that I learned as a graduate student and which I still believe. This means that people can "pass" if they are smart enough, thereby making race a product of social processes, hence a social construction. But there are limits to social construction. Kareem can't pass for short, except in a home for the blind.

But the idea of pure social construction was presented in social science before the research on DNA and the human genome. We can now trace our biological descent to any population in the world, which makes the idea of distinct races very questionable, but it doesn't mean that race is only a social construct. There can still be found distinctive "gene pools" that are "closed" with few links outside the pool, and there are gene pools with dominant and distinctive genetic material. So until we have further research it would probably be accurate to say that race is a "bio-social construct," which means that the defining power of one side of the construct will limit the power of the other side.

I don't think I would give a public talk today arguing that race is a bio-social construct; the public or the main street media are not ready for that level of complexity.

Trump

The audio-tape revealing Trump's comments about women and his predatory behavior are quite consistent with who I believe that he is.

First and foremost, he is what I have called a "hothouse kid," meaning that he was raised in an environment of controlled care and feeding. His growing up years were spent in Jamaica Estates (the closest thing to a gated community at the time). I was born and raised in Jamaica, but never went to Jamaica Estates because it was viewed as another world. He also went to a private school and a military academy during his pre-college years. In short, he never had the benefit of being a "city kid," which included contentious and combative male-male and male-female relationships.

His behavior as an adult has been noteworthy for trying to be the "tough guy" he was never able to be as a kid. I would guess that he was mostly fearful of other kids who were not in his social circle. So what you hear on those tapes is Trump trying to be one of the city boys, being tough and expressing his insecurity about women.

Should this disqualify him as a presidential candidate? That is for you to decide.