As Twitchy reported last week, Vox’s David Roberts decided to take a scientific Twitter poll to determine once and for all if white people have a positive or negative effect on America.
We’re not sure what Roberts was expecting, but respondents overwhelmingly agreed that white people have a positive effect on the nation. The best part: a follow-up poll inspired by Roberts’ poll showed that 96 percent of people agree that Vox has a negative effect on America.
https://twitter.com/kebejay/status/1021822913450635264
We were waiting for Roberts’ “explainer” to show up on the Vox site, and it did a couple of days later, under the headline, “American white people really hate being called ‘white people.'” And as you can guess, it’s a really, really, really long explanation of a stupid poll that shouldn’t have been taken in the first place.
In most situations in the US, a woman is a female person. Someone part of a racial minority is a black person or a Latino person, etc. Gay people. Trans people. Immigrant people. All these groups are [adjective] people, people with an asterisk, while a white, heterosexual male is simply a person, as generic as he chooses. His presence is taken for granted; it rarely occurs to anyone to question it. A white man in khakis and a polo shirt can walk into almost any milieu in the US and, even if he’s greeted with hostility, be taken seriously. His legitimacy is assumed.
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Sounds legit — especially the bit presuming that every white man in America wears khakis and a polo shirt to project his white privilege. But what if a gay white male immigrant walked into almost any milieu in the U.S. also wearing khakis and a polo shirt? Is that secret code that would get him free stuff or something?
Vox columnist Will Wilkinson popped up over the weekend to explain how everyone just didn’t get such an obvious point.
That the message of this piece by @drvox is considered controversial and divisive rather than plain common sense about something totally obvious validates the message. Only white people don't find it obvious. https://t.co/xWdbURz908
— Will Wilkinson ? (@willwilkinson) July 28, 2018
So, the fact that people found the poll stupid validates the message? Let’s run with that.
If you disagree it only proves that I'm right. If you agree, then there's really nothing to talk about.
This is a rhetorical trick of fundamentalists everywhere.
— CognitiveStrain (@CognitiveStrain) July 29, 2018
I'd like everyone to read my new article, "Vox just doesn't get it". If anyone from Vox disagrees, they're only proving me right.
— CognitiveStrain (@CognitiveStrain) July 29, 2018
"Only white people don't find it obvious" = "no black people don't find it obvious" = stereotyping black people into one point of view.
— CognitiveStrain (@CognitiveStrain) July 29, 2018
I agree with about 50% of this but the rest of it is really confused.
"White people" is freighted with baggage but "black people" is not..?
Black people can't think about tax policy…?
This piece is an interesting and important point laced with shallow fluff…
— Jacob Aaron Geller (@JacobAGeller) July 29, 2018
Dude we don’t have to play your identity politics games. Most sensible people don’t give a shit about people’s skin colour. We’re grown ups.
— cvnerve (@cvnerve) July 29, 2018
Literally the most common identity politics move.
— Will Wilkinson ? (@willwilkinson) July 29, 2018
Great counter-argument there … we need to mull over that for a while.
When I say we, I mean we as people. Not as a group. We people, regardless of where we come from, don’t have to play silly identity politics games. We really don’t have to, given that they are devising and lead nowhere good. So stop it. Grow the fuck up man.
— cvnerve (@cvnerve) July 29, 2018
https://twitter.com/TOEmisser/status/1023243930551218176
Why so touchy?
Oh, I think I know why.
— Will Wilkinson ? (@willwilkinson) July 28, 2018
Someone get this guy a book of logical fallacies and make him read it before he tweets again.
To be honest, I find the entire thing to be a bunch of crying out loud "look how woke I am for a white person!" which is pretty annoying.
— Jerry Luo 骆昭睿 (@originalaznjer) July 29, 2018
To us, it’s just a reminder of Eric Holder’s claim that America is “essentially a nation of cowards” when it comes to openly discussing race, which seems to be all we discuss anymore, and then are “shamed” by Vox for not reaching the “right” conclusion.
Related:
BACKFIRE: Twitter polls show that whites are good for America, Vox overwhelmingly is not https://t.co/JzYKBJB5Hy
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 26, 2018
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