Strategies for Fighting Racism on Social Media

I recently posted on Facebook about the ongoing trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd in police custody by kneeling on his neck. There were not a lot of comments on the post, but one in particular definitely caught my attention. I'm not going to post the individual's name here; suffice to say that he is an acquaintance from when I lived on the island of Saipan. Actually, "acquaintance" is probably stretching it: we met once when we were paired up to search a certain area of the jungle for a friend who had gone missing. So we spent a few hours searching together one time a couple years ago. I did not even realize that we were FB friends until I saw this comment today. I will post it in its entirety, and then break it down with my responses. 

Here is his comment:

When I initially read his comment, my first instinct was "delete and block." Because I am learning how to be a better antiracist activist, however, I decided not to go with my first instinct. Instead, after clearly stating my disagreement with his position, I took the time to address each of his racist opinions and misinformation with evidence-based facts and statistics. Here is my initial response:

I’ve watched a good bit of the TRIAL which includes ALL the video footage and absolutely does NOT support your statements. You are not only completely wrong about white people, but you’re ignoring America’s history of oppression and even enslavement of Black people. To think that character is based on the color of one’s skin is so foolish, so ignorant, so contradicted by ACTUAL SCIENCE. You should do yourself a favor and watch the medical testimony, particularly the pulmonary and critical care expert. All the experts completely debunked the allegation that his death was even drug-RELATED. I’ll post the link to the testimony in a minute.
I worked in criminal [j]ustice for many years so I have seen firsthand that White people can be every bit as depraved and evil as any other race. I truly hope that you will re-examine your feelings/beliefs in light of the facts rather than other people’s racist opinions. I’ll post a couple related links there too.
I do find your statements repulsive and personally offensive, but I’ll keep this thread open for now in the hopes that you will open your heart.

I subsequently added the following:

I’d like to add two more points: (1) You live on the island of Saipan which has an extremely tiny percentage of Black residents. Are you basing any of your knowledge on personal experience with Black people? Do you have any Black people in your life?
(2) I have not had a television in over 15 years, so I don’t watch any networks unless I specifically look something up on Google and there’s no paywall. I get most of my news from award-winning newspapers and journalists. For issues related to race, I read evidence-based scientific, sociological, and historical sources. I don’t not believe something because it is some reporter’s opinion. I go to the source. Learned that in law school.

Then, after taking the time to look up the sources I needed and verify the accuracy of what I was writing, I fully responded to his initial comment, line by line. I'm posting my responses here in the hopes of starting a discussion about how (and whether) we should respond to this kind of open racism. 

This is not an easy thing to do. It took nearly two hours of reading, thinking and attempting to write effective responses to his assertions. I am not sure that this is the best approach to take. It is more like an experiment testing how this method of arguing on social media fares against other methods. I am interested to know what other methods people have tried and whether anyone has had any success in terms of the receptiveness of the other party (or other "friends" who followed the discussion).

Here is how I responded to his comment. Note that his statements are bolded bullet points, followed by my responses in italics:

• These things don't happen to white people because so very few white people behave in that fashion.

If “that fashion” means resisting arrest, it is an extremely common charge regardless of race. I looked at arrest data from a number of states and it indicates that police more commonly charge Black people with resisting arrest (rates I saw varied around 52-55%; the charging rate for white people is around 45-48%). Although I wouldn’t say 45-48% is “so very few”, charges do not necessarily reflect what actually happened. Moreover, due to the historical oppression of Black people by law enforcement, it would be reasonable to assume that more Black people would resist arrest.

• So very few [white people] have put pistols to the belly of pregnant women.

First, I don’t know what “so very few” means to you, but White people are convicted of armed robbery all the time. I’ve prosecuted many of them. According to the FBI Uniform [Crime] Data Report, in 2020, 224,720 White people committed a violent crime. Is that what you mean by “so very few”? The difference between white and black people is under 4,000. (I did not look up armed robbery specifically, but you can find all the crime data you want here: FBI Crime Data Explorer).

Second, the pregnancy allegation is false. This is an easy one. Harris County Criminal Court records [are public and] online so you can look them up yourself just like I did. Yes, Mr. Floyd was convicted of participating in an armed robbery 14 years ago, but there is ZERO indication that the victim was pregnant. It is also unclear whether Floyd was the perp with the gun - the victim only remembered him rummaging through her cabinets.

This was his final criminal conviction and he served his time for it. He did not deserve to be executed because of it.

• So few [white people] have knowingly passed counterfeit money.

This is a ridiculous assertion. No one knows whether he knew it was counterfeit. The store clerk testified that he did NOT think Mr. Floyd knew it was counterfeit.

• So very few [white people] resist arrest after numerous opportunities not to do so.

See above re: resisting arrest.

• Almost none have spent 4 years in jail for home invasion and armed robbery.

See above re: violent crime statistics.

• And fewer [white people] still have ingested enough fentanyl to kill two men.

[Y]our statistics about fentanyl are wrong. The opioid crisis has disproportionately affected White people. Here is a US Government report from SAMSA, a division of the department of health and human services, on the rising opioid crisis in communities of color. The first chart you will come to clearly shows that the overdose rate is substantially higher for White people in every single category - including fentanyl.

Please keep in mind that this was published in 2020, so pre-Biden.

• All these things, and I'm sure many more, influenced Floyd's behavior on the night in question.

I’m going to ignore this because you’re unqualified to make this assessment.

• Chauvin was a good cop doing his job.

What evidence do you have to support this? I don’t know if he was a good or bad cop, but I know that 17 complaints had been filed against him in his 19 years with the MPD. The nature of the complaints were confidential and only one resulted in disciplinary action, so this doesn’t necessarily mean that he was a bad cop, but it definitely calls into question whether he was a good cop.

• Not the tripe foisted by the likes of the Cartoon News Network and the rest of their MSM ilk.

I think I’ve been clear as to the sources of my information.

Inauguration Day

I was drawn towards politics from a young age because I wanted to make the world a better place, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society. I began serving as the “Commissioner of Community Action” in the student government of my private Christian high school when I was only a freshman, having been appointed to the position by the school administration when the older student who had been elected was unable to serve for some reason. In addition to regular student government responsibilities, my position was in charge of setting up volunteer opportunities for the student body and rallying the troops to participate in community service activities. I really enjoyed it. At the end of ninth grade, I ran for re-election and won. I was also re-elected to the position the following year. 

As my third “term” neared its end my Junior year, I decided that I would run for the head position: Commissioner of Student Affairs, the official title for the president. After all, there were only four other officer positions on the student government, and I had been in my position longer than any of the other officers (in fact, due to the appointment my freshman year - a year when students typically are not eligible to hold officer positions - I was probably one of the only students in the history of the high school who would serve as an officer all four years). I was the most experienced, and everyone in my small private school knew that I could do it.

I did the things that I needed to do to properly run for the head position. I turned in the required papers, informed the administrators, and started preparing to launch my campaign. Before the campaigning was scheduled to begin, the student council officers gathered for a meeting with our faculty advisor. The advisor asked if any of us were considering running for the Student Affairs position. As I recall, I was the only one of the current officers who raised their hand. One of the other officers spoke up, however, and said that he heard that another student was considering running, a student who was not currently on the student council. A sophomore. A boy.

After some discussion amongst the other officers and the faculty advisor, they reached the consensus that the boy would be a good leader. I would also be a good leader, they all agreed, but since there was a boy who would be good for the job, it would be better to have him do it. After all, the men were supposed to be the leaders. When I questioned why it would be better to have a boy when we had a girl serve as the student council leader a couple of years prior, the advisor explained that, when she ran, there really weren’t any boys who wanted the job.

This was the way that Jesus commanded, they reminded me. I remember nodding my head as if this made sense.

The boy ran - unopposed, if my memory serves me correctly - and was elected to serve as the president of the student council the following year. Sure, I could have run against him, if I wanted to go against God, the faculty, and the other student government officers. My senior year, I again held the position of the Commissioner of Community Action, but my heart was not in it. I never campaigned for another elected position again after that. I accepted a couple of appointments, and I campaigned for others running for election, but any time I thought about putting my name in the hat, I found a reason to support someone else instead.

Today, along with millions of women around the country, I watched through tears as the Honorable Kamala Harris took the oath to serve as Vice President of the United States. A man - her husband Doug Emhoff - stood beside her, supporting her as he had her entire candidacy. As she stood there, repeating the words of an oath repeated by so many men before her, her strong, unwavering voice emanated the confidence of a person who has earned their place in the world. A leader in every sense, she stood firm and proud. She stood for the country, for people of color, and for women. 

She stood for girls: young girls who want to become leaders, and grown up girls who would have, once upon a time.