Just stop it:

Paul Ryan this morning addressing Trump and race: “I do really believe his heart’s in the right place.”

— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 1, 2017

This is why I keep yelling about money. The money behind Free Speech Week, the money behind Fake News, the money behind the NFL and how none of this “unity” bullshit matters until Kaepernick has his job back.

We keep acting like “racist” is an insult instead of an adjective, like it’s something you can be or not be, like it’s not actions. Like it’s feelings. Look, I personally hate a lot of people but I don’t go around punching them in the face. Likewise, I like a lot of people but if I treat them like shit my inner child’s moods don’t really matters that much.

It’s why the “black friends” thing is so laughable. I can have black friends and still speak disparagingly of the predominantly African-American neighborhood next street over as a “ghetto” and airily declare that your schools are the best with no understanding of the history of redlining or its residual effects.

People keep acting like Trump’s imaginary good character is this thing that will excuse his bullshit, and it’s not. You COULD conceivably be a horrible person and a good president; JFK was much better at his job than he was at being a husband, for example, as was a certain male Clinton of our passing acquaintance. Plenty of people who are good at their jobs are assholes.

But Trump is a horrible president (in addition to being a lousy human being), which is the job we’ve actually hired him for. You don’t have to hate an individual brown person to be a racist. You just have to, say, let an entire island of them die and then characterize their requests for federal aid as demands for a handout.

A.