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michaelharriot's profile
Michael Harriot
Michael Harriot
Michael Harriot
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@michaelharriot

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Michael HarriotVerified account

@michaelharriot

Sr. Writer at http://TheRoot.com , writer at Amber Ruffin Show, author of upcoming book “Black AF History,” board-certified wypipologist, last real Negus alive.

The Southside of Wakanda
kinja.com/michaelharriot
Joined December 2009

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    Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

    I think I may know why white people are so upset about this Dr. Seuss/cancel culture thing. I was reminded of this story today. It goes back to the second-most devastating day of my life: The day I found out the Hardy Boys were white. A thread

    8:28 PM - 3 Mar 2021
    • 7,821 Retweets
    • 24,619 Likes
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    771 replies 7,821 retweets 24,619 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        Some people know I was homeschooled until I was 12. I recently found out my mother was conducting an experiment. She told me she doesn't believe "a black child fully realize their humanity in the presence of whiteness." A lot of people think that's racist. Here's why it's not.

        58 replies 330 retweets 5,539 likes
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      3. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        I was raised in a Black neighborhood, in a Black church, and in a Black family. But it's not that I didn't know white people existed. The guy who delivered fresh eggs every week was white. My grandmother sold Avon and her plug was white. I saw white people at the Piggly Wiggly.

        15 replies 132 retweets 3,957 likes
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      4. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        But my mom did other things. When my sisters and I were really young, she would read bedtime stories. But she would change all the names. When she worked at night, she recorded cassettes of her reading for us to fall asleep to.

        24 replies 160 retweets 4,837 likes
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      5. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        She even removed covers from books with white kids on the cover. We also couldn't watch reruns of "Sanford & Son," "The Jeffersons" or "Good Times" until we were older. I'll explain why in a minute. But just know that our TV habits were very limited

        86 replies 139 retweets 4,068 likes
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      6. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        It's not she woke us up every morning with "Lift Every Voice" or told us "Beware the whites" before we went to sleep. But this was my normal. I had seen Diff'rent Strokes and Sesame Street. I liked Arthur Fonzarelli. I knew white people were a thing.

        6 replies 123 retweets 3,888 likes
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      7. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        But, if you had asked 8-year-old me, I would have told you that MOST people were Black. And so, never having seen them, I assumed the Hardy Boys were 2 niggas from the suburbs of Detroit. Same with Encyclopedia Brown. Black was my default.

        44 replies 221 retweets 6,693 likes
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      8. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        I also grew up in a family that didn't celebrate Christmas. We didn't eat pork. But I had a cousin who was raised as my sister, and HER mom ate bacon and gave Christmas gifts. One year, she came back with something incredible. A Dr. Seuss book.

        5 replies 119 retweets 3,849 likes
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      9. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        See, a LOT of Black parents always knew Dr. Seuss was lowkey racist. It's WHITE people who are just finding this out. My mom forbade him. Now, I assumed my mom was against the book because of his repeated references to pork. But, So when Robin brought home Green Eggs and Ham...

        13 replies 266 retweets 4,856 likes
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      10. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        It was OVER for mom's cassette tapes. I hid that book under my mattress and Robin and I read it every day. To this day, my sisters and I can recite every single word of "Green Eggs and Ham." Then I started going to public school. And the school was mostly white.

        4 replies 121 retweets 3,615 likes
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      11. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        Sometimes, I'd be reading a book and the plot would seem vaguely familiar. That's when it clicked: "This is just white Encyclopedia Brown!" Oh shit! The Hardy Boys are white, too? I was devastated. One day I came home from school, and my mom was sitting in the yellow chair

        9 replies 136 retweets 3,918 likes
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      12. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        She NEVER sat in the yellow chair. It was my grandmother's chair. The ONLY time she ever sat in that chair was for one reason: House Court. Y'all, we had WHOLE ASS TRIALS in my house when we got in trouble. There were juries and everything. Even the neighbors would get involved

        31 replies 164 retweets 5,441 likes
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      13. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        But on this day, my mom was just sitting there, rocking in that faux leather Lazy Boy with a copy of Green Eggs and Ham. Technically, it wasn't my book. But I kept it under my mattress because my sisters were all snitches. So I know, if it was ever found, they were GONNA tell.

        4 replies 109 retweets 3,651 likes
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      14. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        My legal team (my sisters) prepare my defense. We couldn't come up with anything, so I confess and plead my sentence down to 2 weeks punishment (the max sentence) Doing time in the hole wasn't that bad, because it gave me an ace card: For 2 weeks, I had a servant (Robin).

        5 replies 109 retweets 3,974 likes
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      15. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        For months, I held that over their heads. If it was my turn to wash dishes, I could blackmail Robin with: "What if mama found out about Green Eggs and Ham, tho?" I had forgotten this story until today, when my sister texted: "Remember when you got in trouble for Dr. Seuss?"

        6 replies 118 retweets 4,056 likes
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      16. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        I had totally forgotten about it. But I've actually had this conversation with my mom about insulating us from whiteness like this and she explained why. The belief that a Black child cannot realize their humanity in the presence of whiteness had nothing to do with white people

        5 replies 211 retweets 4,686 likes
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      17. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        She had nothing against Fred Sanford or George & Weezy. Or the Hardy Boys. Or white people. The few representations of Black people on TV & in books were WHITE PEOPLE'S versions of us. Not necessarily negative as much as they are stratified...Sassy or subservient. Poor or lucky

        18 replies 381 retweets 6,461 likes
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      18. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        The criminal or the hero. Our existence is defined by how white people see us. As an adult, I realize what mother went through for this experiment. Checking every book, teaching us at home, checking our TV habits. It sounds like a LOT of labor. And it was.

        23 replies 293 retweets 6,450 likes
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      19. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        Most white people can't comprehend what that's like. I honestly believe that the reason a lot of white people think I'm "the real racist" is because I never learned how to care what white people think. There is a subtle, subconscious deference to whiteness that MOST of us have

        49 replies 482 retweets 8,407 likes
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      20. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        But here's the thing: I understand why they can't understand it. Who cares if Dr. Seuss was racist one time in that one book? Should he be canceled? They don't realize that the ONLY time a Black child saw themselves in a Seuss book was in a racist illustration.

        31 replies 1,328 retweets 10,241 likes
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      21. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        They can't comprehend because, even if there's 1 bad characterization of whiteness, there are ONE HUNDRED other characters in the book. Even when the villain in the TV show is white, so is the hero...And the hero's sidekick...And the lawyer...And the cop...And judge...

        15 replies 521 retweets 6,826 likes
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      22. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        And the anchor on the news...And the weatherman...And the QB...And the commentator...And everyone except the ONE Black person. The point is: THEY GET TO CHOOSE! The only way to stop a Black child from ingesting this inescapable harm is to LITERALLY insulate them from whiteness

        17 replies 418 retweets 7,159 likes
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      23. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        The ONLY way to prevent them from looking into society's mirror & seeing a white man's caricature of their reflection is to build a white people-free cocoon. But it's hard for them to imagine what it's like when books, TV, movies, etc. have predetermined how the world sees u

        16 replies 293 retweets 5,502 likes
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      24. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        My mom manufactured a bizarro world where white people were the minority, they did not control the narrative and Black was the default. The whites are absolutely right about one thing, though. Y'all canceled Dr. Seuss. Trust me, I know. I was today years old when I realized:

        42 replies 215 retweets 5,804 likes
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      25. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 3

        I grew up in a "cancel culture." Thank you Thank you Black, I am.

        588 replies 403 retweets 13,336 likes
        Show this thread
      26. End of conversation

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