Thread by @pragmatometer

Since we're explore "what if" scenarios, let's try this one:

Imagine if a white man had approached a black kid and started hammering a drum, merely inches from his face, while the black kid stood there, calmly, doing nothing beyond letting out a smile before walking away.

https://twitter.com/TimFullerton/status/1086826122879401985

Then imagine this white man went to the press and told them that this group of black kids had surrounded him, chanting "you're not welcome here", and that one black kid in particular had actually blocked him from retreating out of this "ugly situation".

Imagine this story went viral. Celebrities, journalists, politicians (even a presidential candidate), and millions of online strangers united in dragging this black kid for what he had done. Imagine he was doxxed and received threats, and his school was petitioned to expel him.

Imagine that for 48 hours straight, the world mocked this black kid's smile. It was described as "menacing" and "punchable". Imagine op-ed columnists wrote pieces on how they'd seen that smile before, and expanded on how it manifested all the problematic elements of black men.

Then imagine some more videos came out, and we all watched what really happened.

We watched the white man march right into this group of black kids. Watched him single one out, and begin hammering his drum, merely inches from his face.

We learned the truth; that the black kid had done... nothing.

We also learned that in the moments before and after this confrontation these black kids had been harassed by another group of white men, who had called them nigg*rs, incest babies, "future school shooters", and more.

Then imagine the "corrections" started rolling out. But these corrections glossed over the horrible things the black kids had been called, while continuing to play up the face-to-face confrontation by citing "political context". In fact, all they really did was admit to "nuance".

Then imagine the commentariat joined in. They solemnly acknowledged that, indeed, this wasn't handled quite right. But then they pontificated on how, nonetheless, it had all been quite understandable, really.

I mean, we all saw that black kid's face, right?

And imagine as this was all going on, this white man was having the wagons circled around him. He was being invited to nationally televised shows to share his ever-evolving version of events, but never getting any real pushback. In fact, he was mostly just being called a hero.

I'll tell you what I imagine:

I imagine you stopped being able to imagine any of this by the 3rd tweet, because it's all so absurdly unjust and patently racist that the media and social justice warriors and sponsors would never allow it. Heads would be rolling.

But what a damn shame that this kid was white and the man was Native American, because now he gets to grow up in the digital era with this hanging over his head for the rest of his life.

Shame the hell on all of you.