I know someone who's a bigot. His bigotry is limited to the LGBT community, and because of it, I don't like him much. He's not a friend - I have a strict policy about being friends with people who engage in bigotry, but he is a member of a larger circle of people with whom I spend time. I avoid him as much as I can, and I tolerate him on the periphery of my life in order to maintain the cohesion of the group.
He's also a vociferous conservative who despises the current President of the United States. And here's my conundrum: Does he despise the President because Barack Obama is a conservative Democrat, or does he despise the President because Barack Obama is black? I don't automatically assume that white, male conservatives who oppose the President are racist, but in this case I wonder. If someone indulges in the kind of sloppy thinking and knee-jerk emotionalism that leads to bigotry against one group, it's not a very hard stretch for me to see them doing so against another.
I guess it doesn't really matter. If someone is a bigot, it doesn't make it better or any more acceptable if their prejudice is limited to one group as opposed to spreading their hate out like a shotgun blast. They're still a bigot, and I still don't want them in my life.
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