I’ve always been a little put off by him and he comes across as a grifter. My partner has followed him on twitter for a long time and I’ve always told her to take him with a grain of salt. Now twitters blowing up again. Am I vindicated in my grift-radar?

  • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Absolutely. Samaria Rice (mom of Tamir Rice, 12 year old killed by the Cleveland PD) called out a bunch of Grammy performers on Facebook for appropriating BLM for their own clout rather than actually doing anything. She posted “FUCK A GRAMMY WHEN MY SON IS DEAD, FUCK ALL PIG COPS.” Then Shaun King made a post where he was essentially like "actually Samaria is wrong and it's sad she's so upset but we'll help her don't worry" and it's the most patronizing shit imaginable. If you want to do some brain damage you can read it here. Grifters' gonna grift.

    • fawx [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Idk, I read that whole article and unless he's leaving significant things out, it doesn't seem that bad. Entirely no offense to you in particular, but I feel like a decent portion of people here like to boil down nuanced things into Side A is good, side B is moron who said stupid thing. His post was about a lot more than that one instance, he never spoke of BLM as a we, and he explained the general situation. IDK I just don't think it's helpful to exaggerate the circumstances to the point they're a ghost of a ghost of the real thing.

      • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Ultimately, what I know is that a grieving mother like Samaria Rice has every right to be skeptical and hurt and suspicious and cynical. She wasn’t born that way, but this evil and unrelentingly racist country forced her into that corner. It’s our job to gracefully and patiently help her find her way out.

        This particularly is what I take issue with. He's trying to "help her find her way out" of hating all cops because they killed her son. That's patronizing as hell, and saying that she has the wrong viewpoint but it's ok because she's a grieving mother.