In complete sincerity I reach out to you, Jonathan VanBoskerck just to say I am sorry that everything feels like it is leaving you behind. I feel the same way sometimes. I want to offer you a chance to meet some of the folks behind this “woke” culture that troubles you so much 1/
As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I have to confess that the carefree way in which the pirates bid for and buy women whom they clearly intend to rape left me feeling traumatized and certain that what happened to me didn’t matter to anyone but me.And that’s a hard feeling 2/
For a person who is already ashamed. I would like to introduce you to the sons and daughters of men and women who can remember their enslaved forebears so you can listen to them talk about the scars on their backs, the children sold away from under them3/
The men and women who lived entire lives never knowing a moment of freedom and self determination and who nevertheless persisted because they dreamed of freedom for their children. I would love those people to tell you what it feels like to have those ancestors reduced 4/
To comical sidekicks and fools, who accept their enslavement gladly because they are, in the formulation of this myth of white supremacy, too stupid to want anything else. I would love to introduce you to the people I know who have lived lifetimes of terror of being 5/
“found out” or publicly named as a freak or a monster simply for being who they know themselves to be. I want to introduce you to people who would not dream of asking you or demanding to know who you sleep with and why and what you really look like naked, especially as it 6/
Clearly has nothing to do with your capacities, gifts, intelligence or anything else you have to offer this world. There are a lot of people you’ve never met, sir, and therefore have never had to bother caring about. That’s why you object to having you lovely placid 7/
Unreality ruffled by the needs of anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into your dream of a perfect world. 8/
This might sound like an angry post but I hope you will understand that it is only passionate. I have heard this complaint before and it almost always comes from men like you—white, middle aged, and economically comfortable if not set for life, and living in areas 9/
Where the chances of you interacting, becoming friends with, or actually caring about a person in one of the classes of people now for the first time getting the opportunity to feel heard and seen in a culture that up until now has either ignored or actively sought to crush 10/
Them. I have no doubt that if you met or befriended anyone from one of these classes you’d understand them, feel compassion for them, and never do a mean or bad thing to them. You might even stick up for them. Woke culture is merely asking that you try to not need to have 12/
Met someone to care about them. Math alone makes it impossible for us to build a society of caring if everyone in it can only care about those people they’ve already met. I’ve met so many conservatives like you. So quick to object to the talk of what people need 13/
As a class and yet downright stubborn about defending an individual from one of those classes because you’ve met them. All the “woke” world is asking is that you extend this circle of generosity and kindness that I’ve witnessed in your communities outside to others 14/
Who might not know you but would appreciate your kindness and respect nevertheless. What woke culture is asking, is, in fact, VERY consistent with the dream my grandfather and great uncle had when they built that company. There was nothing political about simple kindness then 15/
And there’s nothing political about it now. You’d be surprised how easy it is if you try it.
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