#though I will admit a part of this characterization was also inspired by the april fools manga

[fatedroses]

I draw a sketch to simply offer my own personal little headcanon and theory that Zenos was the only other descendant Emet got close to (knowing him probably unintentionally) besides Lucius.

Obviously we never see them interact directly, but several little worldbuilding tidbits do make me ponder about certain things, like the possibility lorewise that it could've been Emet that named Zenos, and the fact that they share certain habits and potentially interests.

[meandmyechoes]

The more I think about Dark Disciple, the more I find something odd.

[28th March 17:46]

I keep referring to it as a ‘favourable experience’, and there is no question the writing is what made me fall totally head over heels about quintress, but I also just, can’t?

I mean, yes. It’s very passionate, dramatic, scenes and gestures I can only dream of. But I also, don’t really see it in that ’omg they totally belong together here are my sixty headcanons of them’ sense?

I am very involved in the pairing, but also don’t really, actively ‘ship’ it — like the way it was an open book with Rhayme or Latts Razzi (since it’s the same author that indoctrinated me to Captain Rhayme). I could imagine them being happily ever after and silly shenanigans and slow-burn. But the concept of a quintress fairytale ending is so wild. I can only ask how much it is tainted with my personal view on relationships.

I know the plot leaves little room for “the future” and fed us well on all tropes possible. But, it just never occurred to me to put them in any other clichés or invent a missing scene.

Winding up, I don’t think their relationship is "weak", but it’s very motivated by circumstances and once you take that out of them, you are a little bit lost. For example even during the illicit affairs month, I… can’t really propose one date that does not seem tonally insensitive. (I can think of them being cloak dorks and Vos bringing her to ice-cream, that’s it, after a long hard moment) Really, all I possibly want is that sweet, sweet angst and canon is already there so I have no complaint.

It’s just… I don’t really get why it has to be the two of them that fall for each other. I understand why they did, and I believe it— Perhaps it’s much more a physical attraction thing that I don’t really have personal experience with.

I don’t know if quintress classify as slow-burn because 10 chapters still seem a little quick in the grand scheme of things. (aside: I’m quite disappointed Ventress wasn’t doing much in the last quarter of the book.) My point is, they do feel a little bit puppet to tropes, and while it’s deliciously written, there’s not much potential outside of canon. And that lack of inspiration makes me grimace a little.

[3rd April, 01:39]

I’ve scrolled through the dd tag and let the book sank a little. I am better articulated to talk about the sexist criticism now.

It’s a romance story, and when I judge it by that (lower) standard, it ticks the boxes. However, it might be a weakness as well, due to the projectability of the heroes. And yes, the whole assassination is dumb. Yet, tcw has been consistently this dumb at us. The last two times when she’s more rooted in the dark she failed, sent Savage and failed, so she’s gonna do it again with Vos… after she put down her desire for revenge. right. and surprise! Our “assassination” plan is to find Dooku and duel him directly. right…

I’ve read a review that says the romance takes away from the plot. However, the romance IS the plot. The book IS supposed to revolve around the two of them. I do agree them becoming begrudging allies then partners is a more unique approach, more rewarding as foils as well. but I guess a romance is easier for the conventional to process ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the “Ventress lose agency in falling for Vos”. Now, I can’t dictate how each of us buy into their physical attraction and chemistry (or lack thereof), and there’s no denial that a conscious human being is making that choice for the fictional character, I think the stance on this topic varied person to person from the above two factors, which are very different starting points.

I kept Katie Lucas’s foreword vividly in mind while reading. She said this is a story about people seizing chances to rebuild. That there’s always a choice. Cliché as it is, I believe ~the power of love~. I believe there exists someone you’re willing to sacrifice everything for, to overlook everything for, to forgive - to love them, warts and all. So, yes whether you think Ventress loses her agency to the romance, or if that’s a conscious choice on her behalf, is swayed heavily by how much you buy that they are the one.

[10th April, 10:30]

Yesterday I’ve been thinking a bit more about this. I do love this ship, I just don’t believe they’d be two people who find each other again and again in every life time, in every universe. That’s why, as magnificent as fireworks, it also won’t last.

To explore this, it’s not entire impossible for quintress to separate peacefully after this incident, but would that cheapen the build before? The entire motivation of dark!Quinlan hinges on his vision of their future. And say, Ventress did saved him and survived. How would he balance being a Jedi and his feelings - that’s publicly exposed to the Council? (sidenote: i really don’t like Ch. 27 where a bunch of old men are questioning their love life, but uhhh yes, I’m a sensible person!) For now, I’m seeing another Obi-Satine situation. And honestly how bad that an outcome is. It’s not like Ventress died for her war crimes! The show gave her a full pardon! So Idk man. Why can’t she leave him because she loves him and she exiled herself and they never see each other again WHY NOT FILONI WHY NOT.

Now I’m lamenting more what could’ve been with the two arcs. In Filoni’s original sketch, Aayla and Maul were involved. Man, that could’ve been the dream.

~~~

Part 2: [26th April, 15:15]

It has been… a month, since I finished Dark Disciple and I feel like it’s time to conclude all the thinking this book has made me do.

On the wider reflection about attachment and the Jedi Order, I still have to do more reading on it from other sources to form a concrete opinion. This theme won’t be touched on in this post yet, but I cannot shake how intriguing it is to compare “falling” in love to falling to the dark side. The temptation, and the submission to their emotions, the irrationality, the newfound curiosity, it all incites. Very curiously, it was Anakin Skywalker who commented that one is “blinded by love”

Okay, so what I’ve been scratching my head off the past two weeks is how I look at the romance between Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos. How would I define it?

Now this is as much as an exploration of how I view romantic relationships. Well, I’ve decided it wasn’t “love”, it was an “affair”. It was an affair because it’s a rush of passion, it’s a secret, it won’t last. Before I chop my own head off for bluntness, I mean it in, of course they are hopelessly in love with each other, that’s the exact premise of why it moved me so. But it wasn’t a complete relationship, wasn’t a healthy, sustainable one by any objective standards. Then, that’s the exact contradiction. Oh to throw caution in the wind with you, or to build a future with you?

Both are things I want a lot, and the ideal is of course one after the other. What quintress had (in the end) is definitely not something I’d want for myself, but it’s so fantastical, it’s alluring, just like the concept of falling in love - opening up yourself and trusting another person, is - it’s risky. That’s why it’s a sweet, sweet drug.

I’ve been so angry at all the red flags in this relationship. Reading this book, getting into both of their shoes, yelling NO like their best friends. But ultimately, what they had is unique to them and I can’t influence it in any way. Re-reading, I find myself holding myself back at all the places I was furious about going ‘You are smarter than this!’. Because it’s a tragedy, and the beautiful (I guess) thing is they chose each other.

The other day something on the dash inspired me to really think about ship dynamics. I, unashamedly admit, I’m VERY into Obi/Quin/Ventress in any and all combinations. *cough* I will not explain further.

I do accept the premise and I did discover they share quite a bunch of traits, but it confused me a while what made them cross the boundary, and it was, physical attraction (that the book was selling so hard I was blushing hot). I love them both a lot, and I would like to date them both, and I can see myself in either of them. Again comes the contradiction, is it a good thing to have characters so easily projectable, or do I want to see myself in more complex characters like them?

I probably lost quite a few cars stalling this train of thought. And I've been a canon apologist since forever. This book brought me a lot of emotional upheavals and a lot of food for thought. It brought me down to reflect on my romantic worldview and sexuality because I have nothing better to do. It totally challenged me as a writer and it’s just a really good novel by its right, regardless of the absurdity that is The Clone Wars. It’s a lot of firsts for me. And I really should find something better to do.

[26th April 16:00]

I must address that I got spoiled of the ending and the first and second half of the book probably went through some big changes.

If I cried for this book, it’s score would be even higher. And I’ve been so obsessed with discussing the relationship, without shedding light on the characterization, which is definitely an unfortunate side effect. Then it occurs that quite possibly the second half (26-42) deviated even further from the script than the first? It doesn’t have concept art or blocking, plus possibly (heavily) edited to omit correlation to other arcs. My major complaint for the second half is Ventress doesn’t do much and we know NOTHING about Vos, even though he is given screen time in the book. my, I just wish Ventress punch him harder and drag his idiotic mess back to the light sooner.

And to criticism about it being their ‘toxic’ relationship being portrayed as ‘true love’, well, it really depends on how thoughtful the reader is, right? I think if the reader is able to notice all these red flags and gave their own interpretation of the relationship and its outcome, it’d’ve been an educating experience. There’s what for the reader and what for the characters. They don’t know this ‘love’ is destroying them, and what kind of message is it sending? What ‘love’ depicted in the book is true then? I have my answers, and I hope every reader comes to their own as well.

[fmdxsujiarchive]

summary: a little word play, a reminder of her age, and the longing to reach higher  date: sometime in april word count: 1,427 words, excluding lyrics + a short explanation i included about the translation of the lyrics notes: creative claims (full lyrics & composition) verification self-para for 26! 

“have you ever considered rock before?”

suji’s obviously taken back by the question because no, she has never considered rock as a genre that she’d sing or even create. to her, rock appeared as a genre that was so far out of her line of interest that she hadn’t given a single thought to it. she imagines black leather and heavy electric guitar sounds along with a loud drum accompaniment. if she were asked to produce a rock song, perhaps she could from these elements that she knows of, but she does not think she would ever write one for herself. 

“i’m not talking like KISS level rock, but you know buzz is a rock group as well, right? or at least they started out as a rock group. there’s rock ballad, pop rock, and so on. your songs are all too slow, suji-yah. i think your fans might enjoy a one or two uptempo songs, don’t you think?” 

she wanted to argue that ballads were her forte, and those slow songs that the in-house producer was commenting on was what helped her gain her fans in the first place. “but i did write you and i, didn’t i?” she brings up her last title track which was also a self-composed song in hopes that it’d convince him that not all her songs are mellow. 

he hums in his chair before leaning his head back onto the headrest. “i guess, but that’s still a little r&b inspired, don’t you think? i just want you to expand your genres, that’s all. i think an upbeat pop rock song might fit well into the album.” and with that last suggestion, he tells her that he needs to go attend a meeting, leaving her to drown in her own thoughts, and his words popping up in her mind constantly.

— // —

for some reason, the producer’s words haven’t left her mind since she last saw him, and so she decided to look up rock songs. after a youtube search of “pop rock”, suji’s left with a newfound appreciation for the genre. now, it didn’t seem completely impossible for her to venture into that direction, and so she sat down and started to think of a way she can incorporate her own sound along with the new genre that she has discovered. 

the first question that came to her mind was what aspect of her music do her fans love the most? usually when she asks that at fansigns or through social network, the answers vary tremendously. however, the general consensus seems to be that they like hearing her personal stories being told through songs. though she doesn’t like to admit it, most of suji’s songs do indeed come from her own experience. whether it’s the feelings that she felt while watching a drama or movie, her relationship with her family and friends, the love that comes with the job she holds, and so on. there’s not a single song that she’s written that didn’t have a drop of personal touch in them. 

and so she once again starts to write about the thoughts and emotions she holds at the moment. suji looks at her phone to check the time. it’s 12:27pm, and she can’t help but laugh because her fans would refer to the time as 수지시 (suji time). a stan lingo that she learned that fans use on the time that coincides with their artist’s birthday. she doesn’t fully understand how it started, but she thinks it’s cute. all it does for her is remind her how old she is. 

twenty-six. it’s an ambiguous age for suji. she’s heard from rude people about how a girl starts being considered old or less beautiful the moment she passes twenty-five. it’s ridiculous, and she does her best to ignore such comments, but she can’t help wonder where that absurd saying came from. twenty-six is still a perfectly young age where women can start their lives or perhaps discover something new about themselves. 

twenty-six is an age where women can still fly. 

she scribbles down 26 and repeats it to herself a few times. two and six. ee and yook (note: ways to pronounce the numbers in korean). suji realizes that it kind of sounds like 이륙 (note: ee-ryuk, used when airplanes are taking off; can mean to fly). 

it’s when it hits her. 

afterwards, the lyrics come out almost instantly. the urge to push women to fly and fight against the common misconception that twenty-six is an old age. suji’s living proof that people can thrive at this “old” age. here she is still discovering herself, trying out new things and navigating through the world in search of her true self. fuck anybody who tries to tell her or any other woman otherwise. 

slowly i count the numbers backwards i’m going to take my leave now i’ll get away from you into the distance now, i’ll say goodbye to this star

the play on numbers and on her age can be considered silly and cheesy, but she’s so motivated to show that there’s still a world of exploration out there for people her age. suji knows that most of the audience for her solo music are either around her age or even older, and so she hopes that this can be a form of encouragement or comfort to those struggling young adults who need a place to turn to.

goodbye bye, i’m telling you goodbye i’m going to that far away place i love if i happen to hear your name again i’ll try my best to smile vaguely

i jump up once again at the end of the world pass the hills, to the other side i fly

— // —

the lyrics must have been too easy because suji finds herself struggling with composing a new genre. the melody lines need to progress a little faster, and she needs to make sure that the song doesn’t bore out in the middle from its faster tempo. she’s not sure how to moderate the speed of the song because she’s so used to builds and rises in ballads that are much easier to incorporate. usually, all it takes is a final bridge that’s a little different and a few powerful adlibs in order to differentiate the multiple parts of the song. 

the best that she can do is continue to go back to listening to pop rock songs on the internet, trying her best to find the inspiration to compose her own. first, she just boosts the tempo from her usual slow beat. then like most of her songs, the melody of the chorus comes first. she imagines the same airplane that she had in mind back when she was writing the lyrics and tries to characterize an airplane taking off into the melody line. 

she throws away all the preconceived notions that she has of pop rock and just starts out on a blank slate. what she’s trying to do is incorporate her own style into this new genre so she decides that starting out slow isn’t a completely bad idea. she scraps everything and just starts from the start. she thinks it’ll be better to build it up.

the airplane is back in her mind, and she tries to imagine the anticipation and nervousness that someone may hold when they first board an airplane. what if this is someone’s first ever flight? they’re probably unsure of what to do or staring out the window because they don’t know when the next time they see land so clearly will be. 

the drum beat gets laid out first, and then she adds a few more sides that express the fluttering of the stomach or the beat of the heart that slowly beats faster. she decides to leave out the electric guitar until the first chorus hits because that’s when the take off will be. the drum beat becomes more energetic around the chorus as well, and that’s when she knows that her verse and chorus melody and composition sounds just as she wants it. 

it’s a repeat from there. back to the mellow beat because now the airplane is soaring peacefully through the sky. the leap has been made. the bridge isn’t too different from the chorus, but she thinks an electrical guitar solo will be the cherry on top. it symbolizes the airplane coming back down to land. the moments before someone’s about to walk on new land; a place that they’ve only been dreaming of but scared to explore. 

when she later shows off the finishing product to the same in-house producer that had suggest rock, he gives her a pat on the back. “this is exactly the sound that i was expecting from you.” the compliment takes her by surprise, and she feels like she’s taken one step forward by exploring this new genre. it’s completely different from any other song that she’s written before which makes her wonder if it’ll make the cut for her album or not, but she’s just proud that she took this next step.

she’s proud that she boarded on a new flight.

[mdye]

Trump has repeatedly claimed he's "the least racist person." Here's what his history shows.

President Donald Trump has a standard response for questions about whether he’s racist: He’ll tell you that no, in fact, he’s "the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered."

But Trump’s record tells a very different story.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and otherwise bigoted remarks — from calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists to proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the US to suggesting that a judge should recuse himself from a case solely because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.

The trend has continued into his presidency. From stereotyping a black reporter to pandering to white supremacists after they held a violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump hasn’t stopped with the racist acts even after his election.

In fact, the very first time Trump appeared in the pages of the New York Times, back in the 1970s, was when the US Department of Justice sued him for racial discrimination. Since then, he has repeatedly appeared in newspaper pages across the world as he inspired more similar controversies.

This long history is important. It would be one thing if Trump simply misspoke one or two times. But when you take all of Trump’s actions and comments together, a clear pattern emerges — one that suggests that bigotry is not just political opportunism on Trump’s part but a real element of Trump’s personality, character, and career.

Trump has a long history of racist controversies

Here’s a breakdown of Trump’s history, taken largely from Dara Lind’s list for Vox and an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times:

1973: The US Department of Justice — under the Nixon administration, out of all administrations — sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing Act. Federal officials found evidence that Trump had refused to rent to black tenants and lied to black applicants about whether apartments were available, among other accusations. Trump said the federal government was trying to get him to rent to welfare recipients. In the aftermath, he signed an agreement in 1975 agreeing not to discriminate to renters of color without admitting to discriminating before.

1980s: Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump's Castle, accused another of Trump's businesses of discrimination. "When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor," Brown said. "It was the eighties, I was a teenager, but I remember it: They put us all in the back."

1988: In a commencement speech at Lehigh University, Trump spent much of his speech accusing countries like Japan of "stripping the United States of economic dignity." This matches much of his current rhetoric on China.

1989: In a controversial case that’s been characterized as a modern-day lynching, four black teenagers and one Latino teenager — the "Central Park Five" — were accused of attacking and raping a jogger in New York City. Trump immediately took charge in the case, running an ad in local papers demanding, "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!" The teens’ convictions were later vacated after they spent seven to 13 years in prison, and the city paid $41 million in a settlement to the teens. But Trump in October said he still believes they’re guilty, despite the DNA evidence to the contrary.

1991: A book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump’s criticism of a black accountant: "Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control." Trump at first denied the remarks, but later said in a 1997 Playboy interview that "the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true."

1992: The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino had to pay a $200,000 fine because it transferred black and women dealers off tables to accommodate a big-time gambler’s prejudices.

2000: In opposition to a casino proposed by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which he saw as a financial threat to his casinos in Atlantic City, Trump secretly ran a series of ads suggesting the tribe had a "record of criminal activity [that] is well documented."

2004: In season two of The Apprentice, Trump fired Kevin Allen, a black contestant, for being overeducated. "You're an unbelievably talented guy in terms of education, and you haven’t done anything," Trump said on the show. "At some point you have to say, ‘That’s enough.’"

2005: Trump publicly pitched what was essentially The Apprentice: White People vs. Black People. He said he "wasn't particularly happy" with the most recent season of his show, so he was considering "an idea that is fairly controversial — creating a team of successful African Americans versus a team of successful whites. Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world."

2010: Just a few years ago, there was a huge national controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque" — a proposal to build a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the 9/11 attacks. Trump opposed the project, calling it "insensitive," and offered to buy out one of the investors in the project. On The Late Show With David Letterman, Trump argued, referring to Muslims, "Well, somebody’s blowing us up. Somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff."

2011: Trump played a big role in pushing false rumors that Obama — the country’s first black president — was not born in the US. He even sent investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama's birth certificate. Obama later released his birth certificate, calling Trump a "carnival barker."

2011: While Trump suggested that Obama wasn’t born in the US, he also argued that maybe Obama wasn’t a good enough student to have gotten into Columbia or Harvard Law School, and demanded Obama release his university transcripts. Trump claimed, "I heard he was a terrible student. Terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?"

For many people, none of these incidents, individually, would be totally damning: One of these alone might suggest that Trump is simply a bad speaker and perhaps racially insensitive (not "politically correct," as he would put it), but not overtly racist.

But when you put all these events together, a clear pattern emerges. At the very least, Trump has a history of playing into people’s racism to bolster himself — and that likely says something about him too.

And of course, there’s everything that’s happened through and since his presidential campaign.

As a candidate and president, Trump has made many more racist comments

On top of all that history, Trump has repeatedly made racist — often explicitly so — remarks on the campaign trail and as president:

Trump launched his campaign calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" who are "bringing crime" and "bringing drugs" to the US. His campaign is largely built on building a wall to keep these immigrants out of the US.

He called for a ban on all Muslims coming into the US. He later  expanded this ban to include anyone from specific countries, including possibly France and Germany. Once he took office, his "Muslim ban" took the form of an executive order in which he banned anyone from seven Muslim-majority countries from coming into the US for 90 days and banned nearly all refugees for 120 days.

When asked at a Republican debate whether all 1.6 billion Muslims hate the US, Trump said, "I mean a lot of them. I mean a lot of them."

He argued that Judge Gonzalo Curiel — who was overseeing the Trump University lawsuit — should recuse himself from the case because of his Mexican heritage and membership in a Latino lawyers association. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who endorsed Trump, later called such comments "the textbook definition of a racist comment."

Trump was repeatedly slow to condemn white supremacists who endorsed him, and he regularly retweeted messages from white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

He tweeted and later deleted an image that showed Hillary Clinton in front of a pile of money and by a Jewish Star of David that said, "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" The tweet had some very obvious anti-Semitic imagery, but Trump insisted that the star was a sheriff’s badge, and said his campaign shouldn’t have deleted it.

Trump has repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has said she has Cherokee ancestors, as "Pocahontas."

At the Republican convention, he officially seized the mantle of the "law and order" candidate — an obvious dog whistle playing to white fears of black crime, even though crime in the US is historically low. His speeches, comments, and executive actions after he took office have continued this line of messaging.

In a pitch to black voters, Trump said, "You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"

Trump stereotyped a black reporter at a press conference in February. When April Ryan asked him if he plans to meet and work with the Congressional Black Caucus, he repeatedly asked her to set up the meeting — even as she insisted that she’s "just a reporter."

In the week after white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump repeatedly suggested that "many sides" and "both sides" were to blame for the violence and chaos that ensued. In short, Trump painted the white supremacists as morally equivalent to counterprotesters that stood against them. This seemed like a dog whistle to white supremacists — and many of them took it as one, with white nationalist Richard Spencer praising Trump for "defending the truth."

This list is not comprehensive, instead relying on some of the major examples since Trump announced his candidacy. But once again, there’s a pattern of racism and bigotry here that suggests Trump isn’t just misspeaking; it is who he is.

Are Trump’s actions and comments "racist"? Or are they "bigoted"?

One of the common defenses for Trump is that he’s not necessarily racist, because Muslim and Mexican people don’t actually comprise a race.

Journalist Mark Halperin, for example, said as much when Trump argued Judge Curiel should recuse himself from the Trump University case because of his Mexican heritage, making the astute observation that "Mexico isn’t a race."

Kristof made a similar point in the New York Times: "My view is that ‘racist’ can be a loaded word, a conversation stopper more than a clarifier, and that we should be careful not to use it simply as an epithet. Moreover, Muslims and Latinos can be of any race, so some of those statements technically reflect not so much racism as bigotry. It’s also true that with any single statement, it is possible that Trump misspoke or was misconstrued."

This critique misses the point on two levels.

For one, the argument is tremendously semantic. It’s essentially probing the question: Is Trump racist or is he bigoted? But who cares? Neither is a trait that anyone should want in a president — and either label essentially communicates the same criticism.

Another issue is that race is socially malleable. Over the years, Americans considered Germans, Greeks, Irish, Italians, and Spaniards as nonwhite people of different races. That’s changed. Similarly, some Americans today consider Latinos and, to a lesser degree, some people with Muslim and Jewish backgrounds as part of a nonwhite race too. (As a Latino man, I certainly consider myself to be of a different race, and the treatment I’ve received in the course of my life appears to validate that.) So under current definitions, comments against these groups are, indeed, racist.

This is all possible because, as Jenée Desmond-Harris explained for Vox, race is entirely a social construct with no biological basis. This doesn’t mean race and people’s views of race don’t have real effects on many people — of course they do — but it means that people’s definitions of race can change over time.

But really, whatever you want to call it, Trump has made racist and bigoted comments in the past. That much should be clear in the long lists above.

Trump’s bigotry was a key part of his campaign

Regardless of how one labels it, Trump’s racism or bigotry was a big part of his campaign — by giving a candidate to the surprisingly many white Americans with huge levels of racial resentment.

One paper, published in January by political scientists Brian Schaffner, Matthew MacWilliams, and Tatishe Nteta, found that voters’ measures of sexism and racism correlated much more closely with support for Trump than economic dissatisfaction after controlling for factors like partisanship and political ideology.

And one telling study, conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Stanford shortly before the election, found that if people who strongly identified as white were told that nonwhite groups will outnumber white people in 2042, they became more likely to support Trump. That suggested that there’s a big racial element to support for Trump. (Much more on these kinds of polls in my explainer.)

Trump has also earned the support of vocal white supremacists and nationalists, including former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Why do so many Ku Klux Klan members support Trump? "A lot of what he believes, we believe in." https://t.co/AqB3DLKL9f

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 25, 2016

As Sarah Posner and David Neiwert reported at Mother Jones, what the media largely treated as gaffes — Trump retweeting white nationalists, Trump describing Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and criminals — were to white supremacists real signals approving of their racist causes. One white supremacist wrote, "Our Glorious Leader and ULTIMATE SAVIOR has gone full-wink-wink-wink to his most aggressive supporters."

Some of them even argued that Trump has softened the greater public to their racist messaging. "The success of the Trump campaign just proves that our views resonate with millions," said Rachel Pendergraft, a national organizer for the Knights Party, which succeeded David Duke’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. "They may not be ready for the Ku Klux Klan yet, but as anti-white hatred escalates, they will."

All of this goes against the big goal of the Republicans’ 2013 "autopsy" report, which was supposed to offer a guide after the party’s big electoral loss in 2012. It suggested some of the ways the party could increase support among minority voters — including improved lines of communication. Instead, Republicans got Trump. And yet Trump won, landing huge victories in rural white America.

So Trump can deny his racism or bigotry all he wants. But even his supporters get it. As much as his history of racism may show that he’s racist, perhaps who supported him and why is just as revealing — and it doesn’t paint a favorable picture for Trump.