Had an exchange with a cousin who has been an immovable RNC tool for many years. He has generally tried to have rational and respectful conversations in the past, but always comes back to the same view, no matter what anyone says to him. I DID become a bit less civil than usual (though I generally avoid interactions with him period these days). He unfriended me on FB before I could respond. I really don’t care from a family standpoint, but still. AmItheAsshole? (I am Travis in the exchange btw. The cousin is Redacted “J”. If I failed to redact any other personal information of the other parties, please point it out to me. I don’t want to be THAT much of an asshole.) There were other, more civil exchanges from today that I was not unfortunately not able to screenshot before he terminated.
I would say you are not? You got heated, but he pulled out all the standard BS that gets recycled on Fox about these stats. The overwhelming majority of evidence points to clear bias in policing… Academics debate these issues, but the consensus is on the side of racial bias.
Also, dude pulled out the “black and gay friends” defense… which… yeah, no. Fuck that.
Some people are going to have a hard time being convinced by the more complicated understanding of racism as more than just hating black people personally. That’s all the understand racism as and they resist the idea of system racism (though it’s pretty fucking accurate).
So… I don’t think you’re the asshole. Given what’s actually happening in our country, I think many of us are frustrated with people who refuse to get their heads out of their asses on this stuff. It’s frightening that they just might pull this whole god damn thing down around all our ears because they are so fragile about having to talk about racism.
