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

Nov 5
People who say this election could be the "end of democracy" are so extra...

Or maybe they know the TRUE history of the election-denying white supremacist who led a violent insurrection, overturned a presidential election and ended democracy in America.

A thread
First, you should know that the US Constitution created a form of govt called a "federal republic" where elected officials represent the citizens (as opposed to a DIRECT DEMOCRACY, where people vote on every decision)

But a representative democracy is just A KIND OF DEMOCRACY Image
Image
Saying, "America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy," is like saying: "I'm a MAGA Republican, not an American."

BTW, this is your daily reminder that @laurenboebert is a pro-insurrection MAGA Republican HS dropout who failed the GED 3x... NOT an American. Image
Read 30 tweets
Oct 30
My uncle’s friend Hawk was a feared gangsta. He was ruthless but he was also a chess wizard. According to the streets, Hawk only lost 1 once, years ago, when he was in prison.

So imagine my surprise when my uncle told Hawk: “l bet $100 my nephew will kick your ass

A thread
Now I was like 12 or 13, so even though I was a chess prodigy, I was scared AF

What if I put Hawk in check and he slit my throat ? What if he sicced his goons on me to keep his streak alive? I hadn’t even reached goon-fighting age!

Then my uncle made a deal:
If I beat Hawk, I could keep the money.

A whole $100 dollars? Oh, hell yeah! I was down.

There was just one other problem with my uncle’s plan.

I had never actually played a chess match.

Not one.
Read 15 tweets
Oct 17
One of my former economics students recently reminded me about a concept I used to call "belief economics."

I haven't taught the course it in a long time, but ever since she reminded me, it perfectly explains why everyone is so focused on Black male Trump voters

A thread:
My "Race as an Economic Construct" class applied economic principles as a framework for understanding the concept of race.

I know you've heard that race is an SOCIAL CONTRUCT - it is. But MOST social constructs are ALSO economic constructs.

Even money.
A $100 bill is more valuable than monopoly money bc society constructed a monetary system. Take the pseudointellectual right-wing conspiracy about the gold standard

Why is gold so valuable?

Sure it's rare. But it's not as rare as rhodium or as useful as iron.
Read 29 tweets
Oct 2
While other organizations (hopefully, maybe) will be fact-checking, JD Vance & Tim Walz, as usual, I’ll be translating the dog whistles, white lies and overall Caucasity

The live vice presidential debate “BlackCheck”
JD Vance begins by blaming the “Kamala Harris Administration” for Iran’s nuclear progress.

When was that?Image
Apparently, Kamala Harris has done a LOT. She held a seminar in Iran on how to build nukes

She opened a fentanyl shipping company

She helped organize a human trafficking ring

Somehow, as VP, she passed executive orders to renam the whole South: “Kamala Harris’s open border”
Read 13 tweets
Sep 25
From now until the general election, my weekly “Downballot” series will explore lesser-known races on the 2024 ballot

This first 1 might be the greatest story in politics. It has everything:

A Klandaughter, a civil rights hero, white history, Black history & a map

A thread:
First, we must understand that this race takes place in one of the Blackest, poorest, most disenfranchised congressional districts in the country —Alabama’s 2nd district

It is a perfect example of the MOST COMMON voter suppression strategy:

Racial gerrymandering
This is the OLD Alabama 2nd congressional district. The boundaries do not follow geographic or political boundaries. It was SPECIFICALLY drawn to reduce Black voting power.

But because of population changes, the AL legislature had redraw its congressional districts
Image
Image
Read 28 tweets
Sep 20
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” -

Some guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence

Donald Trump:Image
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this Commonwealth.” the oldest functioning constitution in the world

Donald Trump

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/11/07…
Read 22 tweets

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