Like we said before, it’s amazing how many Twitter blue-checks have jumped to the defense of The New York Times’ new hire, Sarah Jeong, in spite of her many racist tweets.
Now we have a CUNY professor of history giving us a lecture, but first, let’s figure out where he’s coming from. No, he’s not trying to redefine racism to excuse certain types; instead, he’s taking the same tack as New Yorker food correspondent Helen Rosner — if you’re sharing that picture compiling Jeong’s tweets rather than researching her Twitter timeline yourself, you’re just a sheep who’s been fed some alt-right red meat.
So keep that in mind when trying to determine if Professor Angus Johnston considers you a punk.
If you're tsk-tsking about that Sarah Jeong compilation screenshot, you're endorsing a deliberate hatchet job and you're a punk.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
"I think this statement is inappropriate" is fine. You're welcome to your opinion. "I think these statements are inappropriate" is bullshit, because there's like a dozen of them, they're all completely different in intent, and most of them are completely stripped of context.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
If you're going to talk shit about Jeong, go back and do the research yourself—all her tweets are still up. Don't let someone else do it for you, when a moment's digging will make it obvious they're not acting in good faith.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
Ah, that “good faith conversation” liberals suddenly decided we’re supposed to have.
If you don't know which of Jeong's tweets are deliberate, direct parodies of other people's statements, intended to expose the fatuity of racism through ridicule, what the hell are you doing expressing an opinion on them?
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
You want to have an actual conversation? Pick a tweet, find the original thread, and explain why you think it's bad. Be warned, though: you may actually discover you agree with it, and have to go back and find another.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
Fun fact: Literally every person yelling at me about this thread has included the exact same multi-tweet screenshot I spent the thread criticizing as "evidence" that I'm wrong.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
Oh, and just one more thing. If, after reading Jeong's tweets in context, you're still mad about some of them, that's fine. Be mad. She's said she regrets her posting style, and that she doesn't tweet that way any more.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
This thread isn't "you can't be mad about anything Jeong said." It's "take the time to actually investigate what someone said for yourself before getting mad about it, PARTICULARLY if you're going to adopt a high-minded tone about the whole thing."
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018
Um, but what if we research all of those tweets in context and still find them racist? Isn’t there an active campaign on the Left to “de-platform” racists — you know, for the sake of “conversational health”? But now even retweeting that pic is contributing to a hatchet job?
Someone did go through Jeong’s tweets in context for the record: Jeff B., co-host of the (awesome) Political Beats podcast over at NRO.
Okay so I finally read those Sarah Jeong tweets and I dunno man, I don't see how they can be saved by contextual argumentation. I think she really is just a garden-variety casual racist, albeit towards a subgroup it's socially permissible to express bigoted thoughts toward.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) August 2, 2018
I don't particularly care one way or another because…well, because I don't care about much of anything these days outside my family and elections & my rock music podcast. But I'm not buying the "oh she just adopted the tone of her persecutors." Nah bro. It don't read like that.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) August 2, 2018
As always, I react far worse to being fed some kind of BS lie of an excuse than the original sin itself. Same story with the whole Joy Reid thing.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) August 2, 2018
Finally: I don't think she should lose her job. I didn't think Joy Reid should have lost hers, or James Gunn his, or Kevin Williamson his. I am sick of this entire culture of hunting for dumb hateful things people said in the past to foreclose upon their lives in the future.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) August 2, 2018
We don’t think she should lose her job either, but we’ll never be able to read her work without having those racist tweets in the back of our minds … and that’s on her.
How very astute. You're so articulate. Have you ever given any thought to becoming an indoctrination tool…er, I mean a teacher at a radical college?
— 100% FED UP! (@100PercFEDUP) August 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/ThinkingWeasel/status/1025067292881825792
A hatchet job for which the hatchetee has provided the hatchet.
These people man… https://t.co/zHILJsHl7W
— OMG it's almost carniVera #NLhrrg (@verymooch) August 2, 2018
It doesn't make you a punk. You may just not understand the issue completely. Calling for people to be given the benefit of the doubt, but not giving anyone on the other side the same means you're the punk. https://t.co/ce0q29UPTr
— the real chris beck (@SubBeck) August 2, 2018
Not an argument, combined with a weak person attack. How is exposing racism "a deliberate hatchet"? If you care about activism, you need to apply it across the board. You don't get to excuse racism that doesn't fit your narrative.
— libertaRyan (@The_iMac_Man) August 2, 2018
Sucks when that pendulum swings the other way, doesn't it, sweetheart?
— EM (@emaitz22) August 2, 2018
Agreed. Now do Kevin Williamson https://t.co/tatUIaoY4T
— Joe S (@JosephS2424) August 2, 2018
This is a very nice lecture about how people on Twitter should check the full context before they attack someone for past tweets and how people who don't do so are punks.
I'm sure this Professor took the same approach with Kevin Williamson…
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 2, 2018
Nope.
Maybe you should sit this one out, yeah? pic.twitter.com/H9NENUm8TH
— Palatine Pundit (@palatinepundit) August 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/lev4ev/status/1025134612421459970
So you support bigotry if it's against the right people. Got it.
— ClemMedia ⏳ (@JonClem310) August 2, 2018
Remove “white” from her tweets and insert “black” and they wouldn’t be acceptable in any context.
I don’t care about Jeong at all; I care about the double standard exhibited by both sides of the mainstream media. And I think most people feel similarly. https://t.co/Rsy5OJnp1H
— Shane Richardson (@ShaneNFL) August 2, 2018
Look at the "liberals", excusing racism. https://t.co/vNdLR5qVoC
— Damn, I'm smirky. (@corrcomm) August 2, 2018
Leftists love their racists. https://t.co/hHXNsk9TFx
— Bill Dean (@CanaDean) August 2, 2018
A historian agrees! It's perfectly normal for liberal democrats to embrace racism! They have for over 200 years. https://t.co/bO8sXwDoxN
— Jake R. (@jaker1419) August 2, 2018
Yeah, she's a pretty clear racist. Not sure how any of her blatantly racist comments are totally forgiven.
— Dr Dude (@kappasigmd41) August 2, 2018
Kicking and screaming isn't going to make the evidence go away. https://t.co/FGbJKWbAh3
— I'm Batman (@Pray4TheBatman) August 2, 2018
You didn't criticize it in your thread (as you claim in a subsequent tweet): you merely asserted she was doing some next-level deconstruction of racism. If she were white you'd be savaging her and any such defense would be peremptorily scuttled. Le punk, c'est toi. https://t.co/Q39pcSLStg
— (((Just a Flâneur))) {EnlightenmentFundamentalist} (@EnlightFundy) August 2, 2018
I am so thrilled that you folks have decided to slather it with a layer of disdain and arrogance and call it your own.
You're almost to the point of stripping the makeup and falsies off entirely.
It's refreshing. https://t.co/YK46fE2k1L
— Bohemio of the d'Urbervilles (@El__Bohemio) August 2, 2018
Man they hate losing control over the narrative https://t.co/kYk3QWLE87
— Robert Kroese (@robkroese) August 2, 2018
Thread….damn these new rules suck. https://t.co/OSVdyqb69W
— blue (@blue_prop) August 2, 2018
Related:
BACKFIRE! New Yorker food writer serves up ROTTEN defense of Sarah Jeong (and BURNS the Left in the process) https://t.co/8idlvREHn9
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 2, 2018
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