Talarico says straight white people have ‘blinders’ because of their limited experience

BS BULLETIN:

Another old interview featuring Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has resurfaced, this time with Talarico discussing the supposed limitations of straight white people’s life experiences.
Talarico said people who are straight, white, male and cisgender have “blinders” because they have not experienced life from other perspectives.
The remarks join a growing collection of old Talarico comments resurfacing during his Senate campaign — including his description of himself as a Christian who “hates Christianity” and separate remarks linking capitalism with white supremacy.

James Talarico has some thoughts about the limitations of straight white people.

Including James Talarico.

The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas made the remarks during a 2021 appearance on the “Activist Theology Podcast,” portions of which have resurfaced as Talarico campaigns statewide.

Talarico was discussing how a person’s identity affects his ability to understand other people’s experiences.

“If you’re straight and you’re white and you’re cisgender and you’re a man, you have blinders on because you’re just limited by your experience,” Talarico said.

He included himself in the criticism.

Talarico described how his own “whiteness” and “masculinity” limited his imagination and said he had to work against those limitations to expand his understanding of what was possible.

The comments were made during the same interview in which Talarico described himself as a “Christian who hates Christianity.”

He also jokingly characterized himself as a “boring, cis-white man” and said adding Presbyterian to the description helped “spice it up.”

The old interview is receiving renewed attention because Talarico is no longer merely a Democratic state representative talking with progressive activists.

He’s his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas.

And it’s hardly the only old recording following him onto the campaign trail.

Earlier this week, video obtained by CNN’s KFile showed Talarico participating in a 2020 Sierra Club forum in which he discussed the relationship between climate change, capitalism and white supremacy.

Talarico thanked young activists for drawing a connection among the three and referred to them as “oppressive systems” that needed to be dismantled.

He also compared Texas’ oil and gas industry to cassette tapes in the 1980s, saying the industry was “not gonna last.”

His campaign has since distanced Talarico from portions of those remarks.

Campaign spokesman JT Ennis said some of Talarico’s old comments “missed the mark,” while describing the candidate today as a “proud capitalist” who supports Texas’ oil and gas industry.

Talarico himself has previously addressed the steady stream of old recordings.

In a May interview with CBS News, he acknowledged making what he called “cringey comments” in the past while arguing that Republicans were selectively clipping them to attack him.

He also clarified several of his positions, saying he recognizes two sexes and explaining that his previous statement that God is “nonbinary” was intended to convey that God cannot be confined to human categories.

Meanwhile, Talarico is attempting to broaden his coalition.

On Friday, his campaign announced an expanded effort to reach Black Texans, bringing on three Black senior advisers and several Black-owned communications firms.

Talarico said Democrats have taken Black voters for granted for too long and promised his campaign would not repeat that mistake.

So the political problem isn’t simply that another old clip exists.

It’s the accumulation.

One week brings capitalism and white supremacy.

Another brings Christianity.

Now comes the observation that straight white men walk through life with blinders because their experience is inherently limited.

And Talarico has supplied opponents with years’ worth of recordings to work with.

MY QUICK TAKE

I understand the basic idea that people have different life experiences.

That’s not exactly a revolutionary discovery. But politics has developed this strange habit of turning that perfectly ordinary observation into an elaborate seminar about how being white, male and straight means you need to overcome your own built-in limitations.

And James Talarico wasn’t caught saying this at 19 after three beers in a dorm room. He was a state legislator appearing on a podcast.