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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 7

    I have received a lot of emails pushing back on this quote from my mother. “A black child’s humanity can never be fully realized in the presence of whiteness” Some of them were genuinely interested in understanding why this is not racist. A thread:pic.twitter.com/IruDmvwds2

    7:15 PM - 7 Mar 2021
    • 2,923 Retweets
    • 8,644 Likes
    • Julius Mugo Mark Ricks InkCatcher🏹♦️ Jahstix TJ Selfridge 🗽 kamilah taylor CallMeSweet Yvonnie DuBose Felicia Cunningham
    270 replies 2,923 retweets 8,644 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        In a perfect world, an integrated community would recognize and acknowledge differences. But America isn't there yet. Imagine if your grandfather played guitar & taught everyone in your family how to play. But, because he was left-handed, everyone in your family played that way

        9 replies 152 retweets 2,131 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        One day, your 2-year-old, whose actually left handed, picks up a guitar and sounds like Jimi Hendrix. In fact, he's the most purely gifted player you've ever heard. So you decide to enroll the kid in a guitar class to develop their skill. You drop them off for the class and...

        2 replies 71 retweets 1,523 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Your child is the only left-handed child there. The teacher is right-handed and has only taught right-handed students. The person who wrote the book was right-handed. All the practice material was written for right-handed guitar players EVERYONE is right-handed except your kid

        3 replies 79 retweets 1,769 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        One of three things will happen: 1. Your child will learn how to play right-handed, in which case, they will not only have a learning curve, but they won’t be able to use their natural ability. Even if they excel, they will NEVER reach their full potential. OR:

        2 replies 71 retweets 1,742 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        2. Your child will keep playing left-handed, in which case, your kid will have to expend MORE ENERGY just to reach the same level of proficiency as the rest of the class. They will have to do the regular work AND translate every lesson to their perspective, OR:pic.twitter.com/BqqvxaOP1H

        6 replies 78 retweets 1,781 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        3. Forget their family guitar heritage. They will encounter more differences just because they were raised in a left-handed guitar-playing family. They might start believing that they’re not as good as the other kids BECAUSE THEY ARE LEFT HANDED. Weird, right?

        2 replies 74 retweets 1,752 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        If ALL the guitar classes in the American guitar education system used the same right-handed approach, over time, guitar teachers and music schools, in general, would either start integrating a left-handed perspective into the guitar curriculum OR...

        1 reply 61 retweets 1,465 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Guitar teachers, guitar schools, companies who hire guitar players and even people who know nothing about playing guitar would begin to assume left-handed guitar players aren’t as good BECAUSE THEY ARE LEFTHANDED They'd insist they weren't prejudiced against left-handers.

        3 replies 73 retweets 1,639 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        It's not like they HATE left-handers. Their assumptions are just based on the OUTCOME of a system geared toward the majority of guitar students. And, because only 10% of people are left-handed, no one sees a system that works for 90% of the guitar-playing population as flawed.

        4 replies 92 retweets 1,883 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Do you blame the teachers? Given that each class is only 2 hours, they have limited time and resources and, of course, they ALL LEARNED HOW TO TEACH in the right-handed system. What you would WANT is a guitar curriculum developed with left-handed kids in mind.

        2 replies 62 retweets 1,527 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        You’d hope that beginner's courses address the differences in stringing the guitar. You’d hope every class would have chord translations chords for left-handed players. You’d hope that the school and the people who devised the lesson plans realized that they should be inclusive.

        1 reply 57 retweets 1,458 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        If guitar schools did this, guess what would happen? EVERY person who wrote guitar music would be accustomed to seeing the left-hand version of guitar music from when their early education. So they would make sure they included the left-handed version when they published music.

        3 replies 58 retweets 1,507 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Bands who were looking for a guitar player would make sure they looked for left-handed musicians. Left-handed guitar players wouldn’t be thought of as “lesser.” If guitar schools made lessons more inclusive, only a crazy person would accuse them of push a "leftist agenda."

        7 replies 57 retweets 1,512 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        For whatever reason, systemic differences in the way people of different races are treated DO EXIST. Black students are punished, suspended and kicked out of schools at higher rates for the SAME infractions as white kidshttps://www.theroot.com/government-study-school-is-racist-1825014607 …

        9 replies 218 retweets 2,152 likes
        Show this thread
      16. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Especially Black girls. Black girls are seven times more likely to be suspended from school and four times more likely to be arrested at school, compared to white girls.https://www.theroot.com/black-girls-most-harshly-disciplined-over-dress-code-vi-1825637134 …

        4 replies 235 retweets 2,028 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Imagine if the way YOUR HAIR GROWS OUT OF YOUR HEAD could get you in trouble Imagine if doing THE SAME THING as your white classmates got you suspended instead of reprimanded Imagine if you were REQUIRED to subject your child to a PROVENLY racist systemhttps://www.theroot.com/new-study-shows-black-students-recieve-harsher-discipli-1820725551 …

        6 replies 237 retweets 2,129 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Now, imagine having been through the right-handed educational system and experienced on your own. If YOU WERE LEFT-HANDED, you knew how to play guitar, and you believed your child could be the greatest guitar player who ever existed. Here is the question:

        3 replies 55 retweets 1,442 likes
        Show this thread
      19. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Do you send your left-handed child into a right-handed system or do you teach your child on your own? Now here's a story that illustrates the point. I may get in a lot of trouble for this, but check out this guitar: It was built by a 20-year-old Black womanpic.twitter.com/R2vtQWv49c

        13 replies 154 retweets 2,028 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        She didn't take guitar-building lessons. She never studied woodworking. She just liked guitars. Her dad had been raised around a bunch of carpenters and had every tool. One day, he walked into the garage and saw her grabbing tools. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

        3 replies 54 retweets 1,439 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Apparently, she wanted to play bass but she couldn't find any that were her size that she liked. So she was gonna build her own. But woodworking tools aren't necessarily built for small girls. And schools that have woodworking classes usually restrict them to boys.

        7 replies 59 retweets 1,459 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Luckily, this girl, who was 15 at the time, just happened to have a dad who had the resources. Her mom bought her a whole different set of tools, all kinds of exotic woods. She convinced her dad to remodel the attic so she could have her own woodshop.

        2 replies 57 retweets 1,510 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Now, here is the crazy thing: This girl attended a school with ALL OF THE resources she needed to do this. Of course, no one assumes a Black girl is interested in woodworking. They didn't hate little Black girls, it's just that she wasn't like 99% of the woodworkers.

        2 replies 82 retweets 1,729 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        So this 15-year-old Black girl went on YouTube and TAUGHT HERSELF how to build guitars from SCRATCH. The only prefabricated materials were the strings, knobs, and hardware. Here are some of her early creations, ALL BY HAND.pic.twitter.com/ld1WOt3r6q

        20 replies 128 retweets 2,331 likes
        Show this thread
      25. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        So this girl graduates high school and applies for a college scholarship at an art school. For the portfolio, she builds this guitarpic.twitter.com/aRnvffiG4z

        22 replies 98 retweets 2,263 likes
        Show this thread
      26. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        She got the scholarship!. BUT, because of the world we live in, YOU KNOW a lot of people think she got it because she was a "minority" And the thing is, they're right. She had to learn a whole craft BECAUSE she was Black and female.

        18 replies 157 retweets 2,810 likes
        Show this thread
      27. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Not being a part of a structure with preconceived notions of her capabilities actually made her possibilities unlimited If she had learned this craft in the presence of a bunch of traditional woodworking students, she would have probably been told "you can't do it like this."

        6 replies 88 retweets 1,823 likes
        Show this thread
      28. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        Again, she made this with her own hands from just a block of wood. THIS BLACK CHILD'S HUMANITY COULD NOT BE FULLY REALIZED IN THE PRESENCE OF WHITENESS.pic.twitter.com/NLgFyDu3CL

        39 replies 147 retweets 2,933 likes
        Show this thread
      29. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot Mar 7

        And trust me, her dad didn't even help build any of these. I am 100 percent sure of that. First of all, I was never this good at woodworking Secondly, my daughter doesn't allow me in her room.

        289 replies 254 retweets 8,869 likes
        Show this thread
      30. End of conversation

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