Michael Harriot Profile picture
Oct 12, 2021 15 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I wonder what would happen if this story was told another way?

Like this, for instance:

A thread.
One time, there was this guy named Jon who was a coach for the Oakland Raiders. He was not racist. He worked with an executive named Bruce. Bruce was not racist, either. They were part of the NFL, which is also not racist.
But then Jon left and moved to Tampa and won a super bowl with the players from the previous coach’s team. The previous coach was Black.

When Jon started coaching his own players after the Super Bowl, his team was terrible. So he hired his executive friend who was not racist
But Jon still sucked. So ESPN, who is not racist, hired Jon, who is not racist to broadcast games for the NFL, which was not racist.

Meanwhile Bruce, who was not racist, went to work for the Washington Redskins, which was not racist.
That’s when Jon & Bruce began trading racist email. And I know what you’re thinking. But just because Bruce was writing & receiving racist emails while he was the PRESIDENT & GM of a team with a racist name, doesn’t make him racist!
And just because Jon typed racist things to Bruce while Bruce was working at the not-racist team with the racist name doesn’t make racist! Doing racist things shouldn’t make you a racist! When Jon typed that a black dude had “lips the size of Michelin tires,” it wasn’t racial! Image
Jon didn’t even say he had “rubber lips.” He mentioned the SIZE. But it want racial!

And just because the guy at the team with the racist name didn’t say ANYTHING, it doesn’t mean he’s racist!

And ESPN is DEFINITELY not racist!
How can an organization be racist? Of course, their employees keep getting recorded saying racist stuff but it doesn’t make them racist!

And it doesn’t mean the NFL is racist just because they employed a GM who didn’t say anything when he received racist emails!
They are not racist just because they didn’t do anything when these racist emails emerged!

And just because the NFL is run by owners who kicked a guy out of the league for doing much less, it doesn’t make them racist.

They’re cool with Jay-Z!
guess how NOT RACIST the NFL is?

They let the guy who stayed silent about the racist emails hire the guy who was sending the racist emails to be the head coach of the team with a racist name!

Also they had a team with a racist name. But who’s counting? Image
When all of this emerged, the not-racist NFL didn’t do anything. The not-racist network did nothing. They didn’t get together like they did with Kaepernick. They didn’t suspend anyone. They didn’t change rules. And here’s the thing:

They ALL really believe they’re not RACIST!
They honestly think that racism is unlike anything else that ever existed in the history in the world. If you farm, then you are a “farmer.”

But, for some reason, you can DO RACIST THINGS things and still swear you aren’t racist.
You can have racist people RUN YOUR ORGANIZATION and not be a racist organization. You can even HAVE A RACIST NAME and PUT YOUR RACISM IN WRITING and no one—not “objective” newspapers who won’t even point out the lie YOU SAID DIRECTLY TO THEM…

“Rubber lips…” GTFOH
And most of all, you can allow the racist to be racist and say nothing.

If it were a robbery, you’d be an accomplice. If it were a white woman, they’d be held civilly liable. But it’s just a white man talking to a white man so, doing nothing about it doesn’t mean Jon’s racist.
But I don’t even dislike Jon Gruden. In fact, actually don’t have an anti-Gruden bone in my body

This could’ve an email.

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More from @michaelharriot

Jul 15
Although there have been discussions & articles about Project 2025, VERY FEW focus specifically on Trump's plans for Black Americans

That's why I read all 922 pages of #Project2025 as well as #Agenda47

Here are the top 10 things I found:

A thread:

thegrio.com/2024/07/15/i-r…
First of all, when Trump said he had nothing to do with Project 2025, he wasn't lying.

Technically, it was written by 200+ pro-Trump policy "experts," many of whom served in the Trump administration. Trump's official plan is called "Agenda47."

Think of it this way:
Project 2025 is the MAGA employee manual for people who will work in the Trump Administration.

Agenda47 is a campaign document (Well, a series of videos). It's essentially a Cliff's Notes version of Project 2025 on YouTube for MAGAs who don't like all that reading BS.
Read 23 tweets
Jul 11
Whenever there's a national tragedy, a natural disaster or something that affects a lot of white people, right-wing zealots always cite one particular bible

2 Chronicles 7:14

To them, it is a warning from God. But throughout history, it's become a weapon of hate.

A thread Image
If you are an evangelical Christian, a Republican or attend a church where the drummer doesn't use a sweatrag, you've DEFINITELY heard this 2 Chronicles 7:14

They literally believe its a biblical directive for us to Make America Great Again

christianindex.org/stories/2-chro…
To be fair, I've never been to a church whose shouting music doesn't have a bassline. So how do I know?

Well, the Southern Baptist Convention kicked out the president of their political arm because he was critical of pastors who supported Trump.

That wasn't his worst offense. Image
Read 20 tweets
Jul 2
If you're wondering how the "race-baiters" are going to make the SCOTUS ruling about racism, well...

Here's what the Trump decision has to do with the history of white supremacy, racial terrorism and even the death of George Floyd.

A thread.
It began with the passage of the 13th Amendment. If you don't go to school in Fla, you probably know about the birth of the KKK, White Leagues & other domestic terror cells responsible for racial violence during Reconstruction.

Well, it kinda didn't really happen that way.
The Klan was not really that popular until YEARS later. In fact, MOST of the racial terrorism during Reconstruction was committed by two groups:

1. Regular-degular, unaffilliated white people
2. Police officers.

Most pre-civil war cities & towns didn't have police forces
Read 25 tweets
Jun 17
Theyhe SC Dept. of Education canceled AP African American Studies, @thegrio spoke with teachers, school administrators & superintendents to find out why SC essentially canceled the ONLY accredited HS course in Black History.

THey all had the same answer.

A thread.
FIRST we must acknowledge that SC is central to ANY study of Black Americans.

Scholars estimate that 40% of America's race-based human trafficking cargo disembarked in the "slave capital of the new world." Image
SC's Negro Act of 1740 was the template for all state's slave codes, including literacy bans. And, because it was classified as PROPERTY LAW, the individual states would later decide that slave codes didn't violate constitutional rights.

calendar.eji.org/racial-injusti…
Read 22 tweets
Jun 5
There are a few problems with Byron Donald’s idiotic statement, notion of Black “conservatives,” and even how WE THINK of Jim Crow

A thread
Byron Donald’s statement isn’t that uncommon. Every Black person has heard a version of this, whether it is “integration was the worst thing that happened to us,” or what Donalds said.

Those people are dumb
Image
Image
First of all, I will always contend that “integration” never happened. To be fair, my opinion is based on a book many people may disagree with:

It’s called a dictionary.

When did any of this happen? Image
Read 21 tweets
Jun 2
The conversation about Caitlin Clark reminds me of one of my favorite stories about of basketball’s forgotten GOATs and a strange NBA stat

A thread.
Regardless of how you feel about WNBA player’s treatment of Caitlin Clark, it is INARGUABLE that she is expected to be a generational talent.

Whenever someone is expected to dominate their sport, teams & player often use a common strategy:

“What if we beat them up?”
For instance, Shaquille O’Neal was so dominant, the NBA had to change its rules to address the “Hack-a-Shaq”

nytimes.com/2016/05/01/spo…
Read 24 tweets

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