I’m going to pull my Bernie hat off for a moment and put my amateur social scientist hat on. I’m a fan of the Free Hugs Project. I’ve encountered it on the street, and you’d be amazed at what a no-holds-bar hug from a stranger can do for your day. There is a growing body of evidence to show that hugs are actually good for your health. This video, Make America Love Again, is one in a series of hugs social experiments designed to bring more love into the world. In this one, you have a black man offering free hugs first at a Trump rally and then at a Bernie rally. Perhaps his skin color is an unimportant detail, but it is part of the experiment whether intended or not, which seems to be to demonstrate or at least insinuate that Trump folks won’t hug a black guy. The video comments are overwhelmingly about race, so I think it’s fair to discuss it in terms of race.
It runs pretty much how you would expect. He is ill-treated by the Trump folks and embraced by the Bernie folks. But I’m not convinced that it’s a fairly done experiment because there’s a camera rolling the whole time. The Trump folks have been protested at every rally. They’re wondering if he’s another protester. They’re wondering if he is trying to trick them or trap them into looking bad on camera. And he does make them look pretty bad whether he intends to or not.
The Democrats embrace him. But why? Do Dems like hugs more, regardless of color? Do they embrace the opportunity to look like the party of diversity on camera? Or do Democrats embrace diversity whenever it presents itself, camera or no? It’s important to note that the Trump reel was very short and the Bernie reel was very long. Was there footage cut from the Trump rally? If so, why?
I’m curious if he would be treated poorly if the camera wasn’t there. I’m curious if he would be treated poorly if his shirt said “Free Hugs for Trump”. We’ll never know. I suspect his rejection could have more to do with him not looking like a Trump supporter and him refusing to say who he supported. He also looks a lot like previous protesters. But here’s the subtext. He’s black, so he definitely does not look like a Trump supporter, neither does he look like a Trump supporter to a Bernie supporter.
So what if you swapped it around? What if you took a white Army vet with a rebel flag doo rag, and a shirt that says free hugs and sent him to a Bernie rally? Would he get as many hugs? I’m sure many would hug him, but I wonder if he’d be identified as a suspicious, unwelcome guest by many. I wonder if the cops would put a tail on him.
What if you sent a white guy with a free hugs shirt who also wouldn’t identify as a Trump supporter to the Trump rally? Would the results be different? Could this just mean that Trump folks are suspicious of free bodily contact with men? Could it mean that Trump supporters hate anyone who is not a Trump supporter and it has nothing to do with race?
Are there racist Bernie fans? Doubt it. Are there racist Trump fans? Many. But this isn’t an effective way to prove it. In fact, it doesn’t need to be proven. Racism is out and proud among the Trumps. These guys just wanted to show what that actually looks like with a real person. They did a fair job otherwise I would never have seen the video, and the hug guy really touched my heart. Maybe they simply wanted to show that the Trump supporters are not loving people (Make America Love Again) and the Bernie supporters are, and it only looks like a racial experiment because of my own racial prejudice in writing this. This video raises many questions for me.
The question you have to ask is how would I view this video if I were a Trump supporter? Would I see bogus elements in it? Would I tell a part of the story that this video doesn’t? Would it be compelling to me at all? If not, what’s the point? If it doesn’t change hearts, then why even post it…other than to shame people. Is shaming people loving? Depends on who you ask. There are so many Bernie posts that pander to Bernie supporters and are in no way compelling to anyone else. That’s what I’m seeing here. It makes me feel good about myself because I voted for Bernie and I would totally hug that guy, but I doubt it would make a Trump supporter feel good…or more loving. I suppose I could run my own experiment. I’m pretty darn huggable.
Import complicated 