Lunch-bucket racists

Dumber-than-usual column by the Rocky's Paul Campos:

A mistake people make about racism is to think it's primarily a personal flaw which some people have and others don't, as opposed to something that distorts our society at a structural level, whatever particular individuals may believe or say. . . .

One of the easiest places to see this is in the sports world, where certain racial cliches and stereotypes get expressed in relatively unself-conscious ways. These stereotypes reflect the sort of language we are now seeing from Clinton and her advisers, about "blue-collar" voters.

Just as in Clinton's special political language, in the world of sports "blue-collar" is a code word for "white." A bunch of other terms - "gritty," "gutty," "hard-nosed," "lunch-bucket ethic," and of course "intelligent" - work in the same fashion.

The idea is that white players must overcome their lack of God-given athletic talent (which is apparently conceptualized as God's version of affirmative action for black players) through good moral character, and in particular the classic Puritan virtue of hard work.

His example is ludicrous, and commenter John_II (8:17 a.m.) catches him leaving out crucial verbiage.