Charles M. Blow

Charles M. Blow in 2014

Charles McRay Blow (born August 11, 1970) is an American journalist, commentator, and current visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times.

Quote

• …There is a lot of bi-phobia and bi-erasure that exists in society but I find it to be a tremendous distraction from living your life, so I don't give any energy to that. ... I am who I am. This is a lived experience for me…
  • On the discrimination experienced by bisexual individuals in “After Childhood Abuse, 'Times' Columnist Says He Chose Life Over Vengeance” in NPR (2014 Sep 24)

• …On the one end, the abuse is making these young people LGBT. The science for that is completely flimsy. I completely disagree with that idea. On the other side ... children who will eventually identify as LGBT are more likely to be targets of sexual predators. If you think of it that way, it changes our concept of how we need to nurture and care for children who are different. ...
  • On LGBT young people being sexually abused in “After Childhood Abuse, 'Times' Columnist Says He Chose Life Over Vengeance” in NPR (2014 Sep 24)

• I think that’s a good way to put it. I told someone recently that I feel like a folk artist among fine artists. And I love it, because the columnists are a sort of orchestra—every one should be hitting a different note. Trying to figure out the thing that makes you stand out can take years to find. Eventually I decided that being the Southern guy, from the small town, from no means, was, in fact, the thing that made my voice different.
  • On being an opinion writer that is both Black and bisexual in “New York Times Opinion Columnist Charles Blow Celebrates Himself in New Memoir” in the Observer (2014 Sep 24)

• …it’s not a term I reject. It’s a term that I came slow to using. I had a desire to want something that was more personal and more precise and less freighted and not an umbrella term, but, in a way, all identity terms are umbrella terms. Now I’m incredibly comfortable with the term.
  • On initially struggling to identify as bisexual in “New York Times Opinion Columnist Charles Blow Celebrates Himself in New Memoir” in the Observer (2014 Sep 24)

• Donald Trump is a bigot, there’s no other way to get around it, anybody who accepts that, supports it. Anybody who supports it is promoting it and that makes you a part of the bigotry itself. You have to decide whether or not you want to be part of the bigotry that is Donald Trump. You have to decide whether you want to be part of the sexism and misogyny that is Donald Trump.
  • As quoted in Donald Trump Is a Bigot. There’s No Other Way to Get Around It. (August 23, 2016) by Inae Oh, Mother Jones.

• Put aside whatever suspicions you may have about whether Donald Trump will be directly implicated in the Russia investigation. Trump is right now, before our eyes and those of the world, committing an unbelievable and unforgivable crime against this country. It is his failure to defend.
  • Trump, Treasonous Traitor (July 15, 2018), The New York Times.

• Whether or not Trump himself or anyone in his orbit personally colluded or conspired with the Russians about their interference is something Mueller will no doubt disclose at some point, but there remains one incontrovertible truth: In 2016, Russia, a hostile foreign adversary, attacked the United States of America. We know that they did it. We have proof. The F.B.I. is trying to hold people accountable for it. And yet Trump, the president whom the Constitution establishes as the commander in chief, has repeatedly waffled on whether Russia conducted the attack and has refused to forcefully rebuke them for it, let alone punish them for it. ... Instead, Trump has repeatedly attacked the investigation as a witch hunt.
  • Trump, Treasonous Traitor (July 15, 2018), The New York Times.

• Actually, none of this is fine. None of it! Trump should be directing all resources at his disposal to punish Russia for the attacks and prevent future ones. But he is not. America’s commander wants to be chummy with the enemy who committed the crime. Trump is more concerned with protecting his presidency and validating his election than he is in protecting this country. This is an incredible, unprecedented moment. America is being betrayed by its own president. America is under attack and its president absolutely refuses to defend it. Simply put, Trump is a traitor and may well be treasonous.
  • Trump, Treasonous Traitor (July 15, 2018), The New York Times.

External links

• Blow's columns, The New York Times

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