Uh, no one is coddling racists here. Fuck outta here with that. I'm saying that in order to rob them of their weak ass "don't call me a racist" defense, which is used to influence and distract viewers from the fact it was indeed a racist statement, single out the comment as racist. The audience who's watching probably doesn't know shit about Joe and what all he has said and done. She was accurate in calling him a bigot, but the viewer doesn't have enough receipts to agree wholeheartedly with the accusation and thus become sympathetic to him.
Having dealt with my fair share of bullshit, I've gone from doing the former to the latter, and it's been very effective. I wasn't calling "them" a racist, but what they said. With that defense no longer being in play, they had to confront it and answer for what they said. I knew from the moment she called him a bigot it that he was going to take that and use it to distract and it's exactly what he did. It's pathetic and embarrassing that they have to be treated like children, but in my experience, it's been effective.
The fact is, until White America can collectively pull their heads outta their ass and actually discuss the issue of race openly and honestly, we as POC have to be calculated in our approach if we're going to engage. It ridiculous and it shouldn't be that way, but here we are.
And for the record, I absolutely love Angela Rye and she had an amazing presence of mind here.
This. So many White people shut down as soon as you call them racist. Judge the act and hold them accountable for what they did or said that was racist, and not the the person and call them a racist that devolves into us speculating who they are as a person and distracts from from us holding them accountable for what they said or did.
First, you can't reason with Walsh. Just view 10 tweets and you'll see, no matter how Angela would have responded, he would have reacted like a petulant child.
I have to disagree in most part with both of this quoted posts. In my experience, white people(teens and kids) took advantage of my civility and honed in on the statements that I made in order to exhaust me and torment me further with racial abuse. Me saying "that came across as offensive", allowed them to distance themselves from what they said and did, no accountability, no change, and I was worse off because of it.
Angela Rye certainly knows how to navigate her way around a conversation regarding race and she has had conversations with very nasty individuals, not named Walsh. The thing here is that he purposefully disrespected her, and she had every right to respond that way.
It's not her responsibility if white people take it a certain way. I don't want to put any words into either of what you say, but it is slightly reminiscent of respectability politics. The onus is all on US to approach things differently when it should be the other way around
Martin Luther King Jr. was hated and called a hater monger and a person who created violence despite being the pinnacle of peaceful activism. They hated him even though he had that approach.
If you want to approach situations with bigots like Walsh, utilize your autonomy to do that. But when I and others have experiences where a different approach didn't work, hinting that we should still do it, is not something I'm going to do.
Granted, I am not able to express myself in the same manner Angela does, but if I encounter someone like Walsh, I'm going to be 100% with Angela, calling him a racist and bigot.
Even if you don't call a white person a racist or bigot, if they feel a certain way, they'll view your comments as if you called them racist and say you're accusatory...so...it's a loss.
For me, I think you have some conversations with diet racists, but for most, it's not something I'm going to waste my time with.