Being called a racist is the new scarlet letter

If someone calls you clumsy, you can illustrate your agility to prove them wrong.

If someone calls you dumb, you can illustrate your intellect to prove them wrong.

But what if someone calls you a racist?

Recently, more than one pundit and politician has opined that all Trump voters are by definition racist.

Well, I'm a Trump voter and I resent this repugnant and inaccurate label.

And if you want to pinpoint one source of our national division, you might start with this label.

Someone can say or do things that clearly prove they are racist.

Yet apparently according to some on the left, there is nothing someone can say or do to prove they are not.

Like all of you, I wear a number of labels. I'm a conservative. I'd like to think I'm a Christian. And I have spent years devoting countless hours to helping my fellow man regardless of color.

And yet to some, that vile label is still somehow directed at those of us who hold similar histories.

Those wrongly labeled often resort to anecdotes by naming their minority friends or efforts they do on behalf of minorities.

But that is always excused as mere tokenism and the conversation ends.

The ones casually throwing hurtful labels, the ones with true hatred in their hearts, are the ones who seek to demonize those who are different and with whom they disagree.

Their words may not be the definition of racist but they're clearly prejudiced.

It would appear those pointing the finger might well fit the racist label more than their targets.

Labels of any kind hold the potential for danger and damage.

And labels tend to follow you long after the initial claim has been uttered.

Even disproved, racist labels all too often remain in the back of far too many minds waiting to be resurrected when someone sees fit.

I've also learned there's a term "low-key racist" which apparently is a catch-all for those slightly below a White Nationalist but not up to progressive standards.

A racist label is like a scarlet letter worn prominently to harm the recipient.

And it needs to stop.

So let me ask those so ready and willing to sling this slime. Does someone remove the racist label by repudiating Trump?

Or does that label simply lay in wait until the next disagreement surfaces?

Tell me. I want -- no I need -- to know.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.