January 16, 2016 6:51 AM

Why you should never discuss ANYTHING race-related on Twitter

I haven’t read a lot of the books many Americans read in high school. I haven’t read a lot of literary fiction. And the vast majority of the books on my lifetime reading list are by white authors. So this year, I decided to correct that, too. I decided not to read books by white authors in 2016. And then I tweeted about it. And all hell broke loose…. Here’s a short and by no means exhaustive list of the things people called me in response to that one tweet: A race traitor, a reverse racist, a book burner, an aspiring segregationist, a sexist, a libtard, a cunt, and a dumb cunt…[a]nd so on. One person expressed a wish that I also not read warning labels and street signs this year. Another, in a now-deleted tweet, hoped that I would be raped by “a kebab,” which I assume was their highly offensive and dehumanizing way of describing a Muslim man. Another said I should become a “bride of ISIS” so I find out what real oppression feels like[.]

Chloe Angyal is a writer who, like most of us who call ourselves writers, reads a lot. Most of us probably don’t think of our reading lists in the way she does, but Ms. Angyal clearly is a thoughtful sort. Through examination of her recent reading, she discovered what she felt were holes in need of plugging. Because of this, she decided not to read books by White authors in 2016. This may not be a choice you or I might have made, but I find nothing alarming in the slightest about her decision to focus her reading away from a specific class of authors. Some folks decide to read nothing but murder mysteries or self-help books (I rarely read fiction, f’rinstance). Ms. Angyal simply chose to limit her reading to non-White authors, certainly not out of a sense of racism but more as an opportunity to explore a perspective different from the dominant culture.

Then she posted about it on Twitter…and Conservative lost their freakin’ minds.

It seems the idea of doing something that doesn’t celebrate White culture as the apotheosis of the human experience is a bridge too far for some convinced White Makes Right…and have no qualms about using Twitter to broadcast their considerable ignorance and racism.

To some “enlightened” (and White) souls, publicly discussing a personal reading list intended to fill in what Ms. Angyal thought were holes in her literary experience was an outrage, omitting as it did an homage to the superiority and supremacy of White culture. When it comes to the Internet, an environment that famously exists sans filter, the folks with anything to say are very often the (not so) kind, (not so) thoughtful folks who offer up things like “I hope they find your charred corpse in a ditch.”

Jeebus, y’all; Ms. Angyal was simply announcing what she’d be reading in 2016. It wasn’t an apology for historical crimes committed by the Caucasian race, nor was it a renouncement of the rightful preeminence and transcendence of White Culture. Perhaps if y’all could channel your considerable angst and righteous outrage into more positive channels, you might…oh, I don’t know, make the world a better place?

Then again, y’all really seem to get off on unfocused rage and the drive to utterly and completely destroy those who dare think differently, don’t you? Without that overdeveloped animosity and indignation, you’d had no reason to live. How sad. How very, very sad.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 16, 2016 6:51 AM.

Change is good...right?? was the previous entry in this blog.

If only Ted Cruz had an answer this perfect to the birther questions is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 6.0.8