And "racism" is a refrain. To keep with it, as a person on the receiving end, as a person who can be implicated by it, is not—as many Republicans and moderates and yes, Democrats, might imagine—sport. But Lauren Berlant urges us to "refuse to be worn out." In a country where racism has to be the refrain, the word cannot and does not lose meaning even as it is repeated again and again. And it has to be repeated. "We refuse to be worn out."
Is it racism? Is it a baby crying in a restaurant? It can't be. It can't be another baby crying in another restaurant where yet another crowd of adults is trying to eat in peace. Babies crying in restaurants have lost all meaning. You can't write it. Don't you dare write it in this esteemed publication. The crowd of people is tired and they don't see a baby and they don't hear it crying. When there is a real baby actually crying they'll know it — it will be obvious.
Anyway, the baby refuses to be worn out.
But what is a baby, anyway? Is this really a baby? Or is this a machine of outrage? Do you just want to see a baby where there is something more nuanced? And not a baby?
Still, here, the baby is engaged in its project of crying. Another baby (another baby!) in the restaurant points to the crying baby. "Baby cry," the other baby says. Can a baby even say that? Should a baby be pointing and speaking, and at this restaurant, where everyone is just trying to eat in peace?
These poor adults, eating, in the restaurant. This is the real story: What is the food they eat? In which direction runs the wood grain of the New American tabletops? The lighting? All in much better taste than the pointing and the crying, which may not be crying at all.
Anyway, Lauren Berlant says that we still have to say it and write it and point at it even when we start to feel worn out. IT'S RACIST. Even when they insist on "peace". IT'S RACIST. And we have! IT IS RACISM. And even when they wouldn't have us! THIS IS RACIST. And even when NPR decides to dabble in its own affect of objectivity, in our very own cars! That we bought! After all those hours at the dealership! HE IS RACIST. And now on the free Sirius XM trial, NPR does an appraisal of the entire restaurant as if the crying baby is an interesting choice in background music! WHAT SHE SAID IN THAT PROFILE IS RACIST.
Still, I get tired. So, in the midst of all this “information”—these “viewpoints”, which we should not have to defend ourselves against—you have to come out and say it.