Of Pots, Kettles, and Racism

"Well, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

It's a phrase I worried about using several months ago out of fear it would be construed as racist. I even went so far as to confide my worry to a trusted confidant, a wordsmith, and probably the smartest person I know. 

He told me he understood my concern, and we explored the etymology of the phrase. We concluded it was not racist, but with everyone as touchy as they are today, it was probably best to lay off using the phrase. I forgot about searching for an alternative that would be politically correct. 

Until yesterday. 

A social media posting linked to a BBC article, entitled, "Trump challenges Biden to drug test before debate." Essentially, Donald Trump has asked that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden submit to a drug test before their scheduled debates because Biden had shown a marked improvement in his cognitive state recently. Trump accused Biden of being incoherent during a debate. 

I first responded with "How ironic," then hit edit on the comment and came so close to responding to the social media posting with the old standby, then worrying that someone would construe what I meant as racially offensive, I asked myself, "What DO you mean then?"

And down the rabbit hole I went. 

I turned to Wikipedia as a springboard in this matter.  From the get-go, the entry asserts that the phrase is used as psychological projection or hypocrisy. Two words near the bottom also caught my attention: tu quoque. Tu quoque is an ad hominem logical fallacy, basically meaning "you too." An example I give my students of a tu quoque attack is an obese physican suggesting his patient needs to lose weight, to which the patient replies, "You too!" 

However, knowing that some Trump supporters believe Trump was chosen by God and that Democrats are the heathen spawn of the Devil himself with no knowledge of the Bible, another passage attributed to Jesus Himself stood out to me. 

Matthew 7: 3-5 is, as paraphrased in the New Revised Standard Version: 

"Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye."

Of course, after I posted that, I worried that someone would accuse me of being self-righteous and belittle me for quoting the Bible as defense. 

So far, no one has said anything about my response to the original article. I think I've been risking it enough with getting political on social media anyway, so allow me to explain in a space I have claimed as my own outlet. 

Quite simply, Trump has no right to ask Biden to do something he would not, more fallacious behavior there. If one does it, they should both do it. That's what bothers me about the situation. Trump will belittle Biden for not doing it. Why? Trump's own hubris. I hope, that, in Trump's case, hubristic actions will lead to his downfall in a few weeks, but we are talking about 2020, which has been a dumpster-on-fire kind of year.  

So, readers, I am curious to hear what you have to say about any of this. Is the aforementioned idiom about pots and kettles racist? Is it fair to involve specks of dust and logs instead? Am I self-righteous? Should Trump and Biden have drug tests or cognitive tests? 

You can get back to me on that.