Thread by @salstrange

This is why “just be nice to white people” is not a solution. Dudes will insist we all share the same goals, but choose to defame and rage the instant their attempts to center whiteness are rejected or they are asked to listen.

Dudes have been posting all day about how awful the K-Hive is because they got pushback against centering whiteness.

Let’s look at this.

Matthew’s calling the pushback he got “deranged” and “toxic.”

Here’s the actual exchanges:

When he was reminded of how he lost his temper and did this *exact same thing before*:

So he knew it was wrong (and racist) before. But he’s doing it again. Because being told they’re wrong or not the ones who should be speaking like authorities on a subject is enough to self-justify playing the victim

This is, BTW, a big part of why “stop making white people feel bad about race” is a ridiculous suggestion. You cannot nicely ask someone to stop being wrong when they believe they’re superior or right.

They have to humble enough and open enough to listen.

To be clear, I don’t call myself K-Hive, even though I follow many of them and support them. Many other white accounts don’t call ourselves K-Hive for two main reasons.

First is because the K-Hive was created by black women and other POC supporters of Harris. It’s not our place to just anoint ourselves part of that group.

So I listen and defend and do my best. But I’m K-Hive adjacent.

Second is because as a white woman who interacts regularly with K-Hive accounts, anything I do seen as good will be discounted as “well, you’re not really K-Hive” but anything I post that is seen as an attack is deemed to justify racist “K-Hive is toxic” narratives.

Matthew is the disappointment for me in this situation because he should know better and claims to be a supporter, but the glass ego erases any memory of previous bad behavior and makes him fall right back into parroting the trope.

The Shane dude is more sinister and more obvious and I’m not as familiar with him, but his routine is common and easy to spot.

It starts with trolling for outrage responses with predictable bait:

Have no idea if this is a Bernie dude or just a run of the mill asshole, but I’ve seen this show since the primaries. They make unnecessary attacks against Harris just so they can cherry pick responses to say “KHive is toxic.”

I hate reruns.

But this guy has really refined his tactics because he then shifted to weaponizing his disability and trying to hide behind being a “disability advocate” as a shield for his racist attacks.

“They’re attacking the fact that I’m a cancer survivor,” then gets all the usual types of accounts clutching pearls to advance and spread the racist “KHive is toxic” narrative.

Because white people are always the real victims. Always.

This was always his goal:

Also, if you follow the K-Hive you know that a majority of them are disabled and/or supporting disabled loved ones, and/or trauma survivors, and/or cancer survivors.

But, at least by my observation, they don’t bother amplifying those things in debate because they know those factors will simply be dismissed as casually as their points about race are dismissed as “playing the race card” and can be weaponized against them.

However, as someone who is also disabled, I would like to repeat something @Politigoth says often: “Having a Dx is not a license to asshole.”

You don’t get to use your disability as a shield for your shitty behavior.

Obvious troll is obvious.

This is something I see play out EVERY SINGLE DAY in the mentions of the black women whether they are K-Hive or not.

Here’s how the song goes.

1. Black woman posts something to educate others about race, or, god forbid, express frustration about whiteness.
2. Fragile white person shows up to play notall games.
3. Fragile white person is handed their ass.
4. Fragile white person plays victim.

Shane just decided to troll for heat rather than go find it, but his game was the same.

And if you’re asking “why bother to engage him at all if he’s just trolling?”

And the answer to that is because the K-Hive is made up of women who watched what happened when one of their other preferred candidates got buried in narratives with no pushback.

(Hint: emails)

Lastly, I just want to point out how obvious it is what Shane is doing because of who he is choosing to cherry-pick as attacking him and labeling as K-Hive in order to push the racist “K-Hive is toxic” trope.

When asked for receipts of being attacked by the K-Hive, he posted tweets from accounts that do not have K-Hive in their profiles. Only one has Harris in a profile. Despite a couple of them following me I only recognize one and they are not high profile K-Hive.

Here are the bios of the posts he claims are proof the K-Hive is toxic and attacking him because of his disability. Notice anything missing?

The damage here is done. And the damage was the point.

An anti-Harris troll put out bait. A person claiming to be an ally who was up in his ego over being called out for centering whiteness validated that troll.

Those primed to spread this racist narrative did so.

Meanwhile, in reality, we are seeing K-Hive accounts regularly targeted and removed for pushing back against racism while the racist accounts stay active. We are seeing white people with BLM in their profiles rage when called out for dismissing the input of Black & POC voices.

We are seeing a whole fuckton of white people who claimed to be allies, not just to the K-Hive, but to Black and POC causes in general suddenly want to run back to centering whiteness because of a single lost state election.

And *none* of those people primed to accept those narratives are going to bother to read this kind of thread that breaks down reality.

Because truth is nuance and “K-Hive is toxic” is easy.

It is *always* easier to destroy than to build.

Which is why the GOP’s lazy dogwhistle “messaging” is always seen as better.

And why these two dudes who are supposedly on the left will choose to bask in the support they’re getting for employing GOP tactics against black women instead of self-reflecting.

Centering whiteness will never be the solution to racism regardless of how you try and justify it because too many white people prefer to cry victim rather than examine their own racist instincts even under the most gentle of prodding.

And there will always be a troll putting out bait ready to welcome them with open arms and assure them the Black/POC/Trans other is the *real* problem.

Because that’s how white supremacy and recruitment work.

And that’s how you end up agreeing with some random white dude on Twitter that, yes, it’s the Black women that are “toxic” instead of taking a hard look in a mirror when you get pushback.

Do better.

/end rant.

PS: Important note I forgot to add. Just to be clear when I say that this guy has no fucking idea who is and isn’t K-Hive and knew he didn’t have to care when he put out his bait:

This is a big “tell me Black women don’t trust you without saying ‘Black women don’t trust me’” tell.

Just so I’m clear: I’m not saying all Black women support K-Hive. What I am saying is that I have deliberately cultivated my feed to include as many Black/POC/LGBTQ, etc voices (esp women) as I can. Many of them might be K-Hive. Many of them are not.

The only ones I block intentionally are GOP apologists and/or Sanders stans.

For an account not to be followed by a single account I follow to try and amplify is a huge red flag to me.

Take that for what you will.

This time I’m really done. Out.