Thread by @rasoolberry

1/ Ppl have reached out to me about the Candace Owens video which is being weaponized to rebut the masses as we speak out, march & demand action against racism. Isn’t it amazing that 99% of us can say “Get your knee off my neck!” & be ignored but 1% can make a living off saying

2/ There is no knee” & be paid more attention? Almost like people want their opinions supported & grab anyone they can (not a historian or a scholar or leader in our community but a political shill 🙄). But I’ll break my own rule to break down her video to equip the folks who

3/ are dealing with those circulating her video. Then I’m re-retiring from responding to her foolishness.

After my careful research into her positions and strategies, I have concluded Candace Owens is a opportunistic provocateur who builds her personal brand by inciting animus

4/ instead of inspiring and insightful dialogue. I have found many errors in logic and history in her various posts. As a result, I generally avoid engaging with her content. I find it offensive but more importantly I find it disingenuous, inaccurate and so dismissive of people’

5/ pain and experience that it’s dangerous to give any attention at all. But since many have asked about it, I just watched the video for you.

Quick reactions to Candace Owens quotes:
“Racially motivated police brutality is a myth.”

6/ This lie is so reprehensible its shocking. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Rodney King, Fannie Lou Hamer ... the names go on through decades and centuries.

7/ When NYC instituted a curfew on Monday it was as the first since 1943. What was the cause then? A white officer killed a black soldier which caused unrest in Harlem. This problem is so endemic in American history only willful ignorance can deny its existence.

8/ “Nobody wants to tell the truth in black America”

This self-serving egomaniacal racist statement is absurd. No one wants to tell the truth but Candace? Really ? It’s obvious this video isn’t for Black America. It’s an Ad for White America:

9/ I’ll tell you what you already believe is true about my community!” Think about even if there was an iota if truth to what she’s saying, why would she attack people who are living in grief and fear and anger? She’s a smarter communicator than that.

10/ She can read the room. The room she is reading is not the one with Black people in it. Her lack of wisdom and empathy is calculated. She’s well educated and a dynamic communicator, but she does not speak for us! No one elected or selected her. She leads no group of us.

11/ “Our biggest problem is us ... black on black crime”

Again, this is simply a lie that most of us know from experience but many white people are ignorant to and are suspicious of. She plays to that ignorance.

This is also when credibility must come up.

12/ What Black community does Candace lead? What organizing has she done? What solutions has she created? Whose suffering has she attempted to lessen? I’ve seen her in white spaces talking about Black people but not talking to Black communities working to make them better.

13/ Anybody can claim to speak as an expert, but what expertise has she demonstrated? Candace offers nothing to us and is offered no respect or influence by us, yet those outside our community anoint her as a credible source. Why?

14/ why is she used as a shield for the status quo? BC her greatest qualification is that she agrees w/ white people who say there is no problem.

Sadly, she uses her communication abilities to further divisions & build her platform among those looking for worldview validation.

15/ The last 12 days following George Floyd’s murder has been so painful that we don’t have time to trifle with the antics of someone like her who trivializes the real crises that many Black people experience and feel.

16/ Her ego, ideology or platform seem bigger than her ability to simply show empathy. She has chosen ambition over integrity. She attacks the NAACP who supported her anti-discrimination lawsuit against her school because she is an opportunist

17/ We see them throughout history: mercenaries who place their personal ambition above the needs of the people & convince themselves they are fighting a righteous cause. They are used and useful to those who would use her as “an alternative perspective” of our history & struggle

18/ while she distorts and denies the truth of that history to tell people with itching ears desperately desiring to hear a person with a black face say “White people: The status quo is not the problem, black people are.

19/ We don’t mind the knees on our neck, in fact we can’t stand the ones in our community who can’t see the knee is not hurting but helping us breathe.” Don’t fall for the okey-doke. It’s slight of hand logic for profit.

newsone.com/3848636/candac…

Thanks @mattmikalatos “here's a list of 18 articles about bias in policing. Keep in mind that statistics are complicated in this particular field of study, because getting the numbers is difficult...”
vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/d…