Thread by @SethAMandel

1. So here's a humorous and dumb thing that happened this week on twitter, which I thought was particularly illuminating about the unhealthy relationship journalists have with this hellsite.

2. Every week in the magazine, we have a back-of-the-book Obituary, similar to the way the Economist might have and other mags that want to highlight one notable life and give them a full page and really try to get at what was extraordinary in that life.

3. This week's obituary was pretty obvious, when Toni Morrison passed away early in the week. Now, we have a stable of writers who do wonderful obituaries--it's a skill, really, that requires a certain touch and deep well of knowledge.

4. But I thought it was fairly obvious that it would be appropriate for the obituarist to be black. I don't *think* I have to explain why. So I reached out to some friends for suggestions, talked to black feminists who were happy to help make suggestions and connections.

5. Everyone I spoke to agreed this would be a wonderful opportunity to not only honor a major African American figure but also allow the writer to show readers what life and love and struggle and passion and wisdom and wonder looked like through the lens of a black American.

6. Since this is a conservative publication, it would also reach people who need to hear this message and learn its lessons at this critical moment (though those lessons are timeless). Morrison would, then, honor us all by showing that some things transcend partisanship.

7. Haha what was I thinking. Anyhoo, one person suggested reaching out to the twitter handle WritersofColor. I did so. They were happy to tweet out this opportunity for writers of color. I didn't end up getting a writer through them, but it was still helpful.

8. An employee here came in yesterday and asked me if I got a writer for the Toni Morrison obit, because they had "seen the blowback to the tweet."

Huh? I hadn't seen any blowback. So he sent me the tweets in question. It wasn't much of a blowback at all, but it was fascinating.

9. A writer named Nylah Burton had responded to WritersofColor, but she has me blocked so I had no idea. The backstory here is that Nylah viciously attacked a friend of mine on twitter, and I defended my friend, and one of us held a grudge (guess which one!).

10. Hello old friend!

11. Well, what can you do. Normally the response to this sort of thing, a serious accusation just tossed casually into the air, would be for WritersofColor to ignore it. A second response would be to say, "huh. Tell us more."

WritersofColor chose door number three:

12. Perhaps they were just being polite. But no, they deleted the tweet!

13. And followed up with an apology!

14. After a few more ppl thanked Nylah for her service, she explained that she was happy to help because... folks, this is such an amazing tweet it belongs in a museum:

15. Let's unpack this. Nylah gives four reasons for my racism.

First: I worked for Commentary.

True! I was an editor at Commentary, where I praised Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay on reparations and published @DavidAFrench criticizing conservatives over Trayvon Martin's killing.

@DavidAFrench 16. So my search for my Commentary racism came up empty. I tried the second envelope: Seth's wife is Bad.

Folks.

@DavidAFrench 17. "Seth won't control his wife" is a common refrain here, but alas, not convincing proof of my soulless monsterhood.

Third reason: I attacked black leaders.

Now we're getting somewhere! Except, the black leaders I attacked were... Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan.

Folks.

@DavidAFrench 18. Now, it's entirely legitimate for Nylah to be offended if her identity as a black woman is tied closely to feeling represented by Sharpton and Farrakhan. But still, as a Jew, it *kinda* makes sense for me to criticize Sharpton and Farrakhan in good faith?

@DavidAFrench 19. This tweet in the thread is dedicated to apologizing to David French who is now apparently being tagged in the rest of this thread, so I will wrap it up soon.

@DavidAFrench 20. Finally, the fourth and last proof of my status as satan: "He's a known conservative."

My god.

@DavidAFrench 21. Now, conservatives are often criticized for not letting black Americans speak for themselves, and for not trying hard enough to see things from their perspective. Nylah, WritersofColor, and those chiming in the thread (professors among them, writers, poets) disagree.

@DavidAFrench 22. They don't want an improvement in the way we talk about race. They don't want black voices to be heard by nonliberal listeners and readers. This complicates a world they see in a very straightforward way, and they don't want things to get better. They want evil enemies.

@DavidAFrench 23. They are in the minority on the left, by a very large margin. The very popular black feminist author and professor I talked to, for example, was happy to help. I was not met with hostility by anyone I spoke--not a single person. But they're there, and Extremely Online.

@DavidAFrench 24. And that means organizations dedicated to amplifying black voices are intimidated into pulling their request--again, I really can't believe it, but here we are--for writers of color to widen their audience. It's very weird, but it's very twitter.

@DavidAFrench 25. And the way ppl and groups and "brands" and teams and whatnot interact on twitter and respond to criticism on twitter is deeply unhealthy and can, in plenty of cases, adversely affect the people who rely on them in the real world.

@DavidAFrench 26. That journalists and elected officials (and academics, I suppose) pay so much heed to this site bodes ill for everyone and everything in its blast radius. Meth out. /fin

@DavidAFrench Sorry addendum: We got our Toni Morrison obit, and it's wonderful and I can't wait for our readers to have their eyes opened.

Sorry one last addendum! Don’t assume conservative pubs haven’t attempted to bring in minority voices. As I said, we got our Morrison obit, and of course it’s on us to do the work. But we’re probably trying harder than you assume. Grasp the outstretched hand.