Open and constructive discourse of the kind Sullivan says he wants depends on a generosity and good faith that he is incapable of showing when the subject is racism and issues related to black people.
That Michael Brown did not say "hands up, don't shoot" does not erase or negate the meaning contained in the phrase or its resonance for protesters and their allies. This happens all the time in politics, where clarity of communication is paramount.
It is fair to note the facts behind Brown's death. What is ungenerous and bad faith is to declare, as Sullivan does, that those facts invalidate the ways in which those words capture something true about the world, which resonates with protesters.
I can only evaluate what Sullivan says. But I suspect that the truth value of "hands up, don't shoot" is less important to him than the opportunity to denigrate a group of people whom he holds in contempt, and a cause which he sees as fraudulent.
(And yes, I am aware that *I* have not always been a model of generosity and good faith, but it is something I am always working on, and also I have never claimed to be such a model.)
