Josh DennyVerified account

My point is, when you call someone this in conversation - you know exactly what you’re doing: attempting to devalue their POV based on negative cultural stereotypes. That’s racism.

Saying “my label for you invalidates your opinion or your place in society” is literally what Dr. King fought against.

We have to be better than that. Use our words and our minds and our hearts to win arguments. Not by trying to dehumanize the opposition to your beliefs. No matter who you are.

BTW - if you know me, you know I reflect on things like this constantly - it’s literally the core of my podcast. I do think it’s interesting that the statement itself has multiple times drawn out the exact example I was making.

The response to the initial tweet is exactly the “sound byte” culture @kanyewest was referring to: people choosing to ignore context to confirm their own biases is the problem with our society.

The incendiary initial implication did exactly what was intended - attract people to the conversation - but all of the comments are actually proving my point: your belief is invalid because of x,y, and z that aren’t part of this discussion. This is what perpetuates divisiveness.

We will only eliminate racism, bigotry, and discrimination when we stop thinking of people and discussing society in those terms. Saying “this person can’t think this because they’re this” is why we are a nation divided. Merely switching power dynamics isn’t the cure.