The internet is ablaze about Sarah Jeong, a young Asian woman recently hired by the NYT. It appears that Ms. Jeong has a habit of making extremely derogatory remarks about white people on Twitter, often in response to attacks from right-wing trolls. Some commentators have responded to this by insisting that racial hate speech by minorities should be held to the same standard as similar speech by white right-wingers. Her defenders have argued, in essence, that her comments were taken out of their ironic context, and that they should be taken seriously, but not literally.
But, you ask, what about Donald Trump? He uses Twitter to make extreme comments that are meant to firm up his bonds with his base. If Ms. Jeong’s facially racist statements should be excused on the basis that she was just chatting ironically with her friends, shouldn’t Trump be treated the same way?
No, because: (a) Trump has responsibilities to the entire nation as president that Ms. Jeong doesn’t; and (b) he isn’t just communicating ironically with his friends–he’s also trying to trigger the libs for his own advantage.