This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/opinion/racism-twitter.html
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| My People Have Been Through Worse Than a Twitter Mob | My People Have Been Through Worse Than a Twitter Mob |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Late Thursday night, I appeared on TV. On Friday morning, I woke up to a text message from a friend. | Late Thursday night, I appeared on TV. On Friday morning, I woke up to a text message from a friend. |
| “People on Twitter are pathetic,” she wrote. “How are you?” | “People on Twitter are pathetic,” she wrote. “How are you?” |
| On MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” the night before, we mentioned a tweet, written by someone else, about the enormous amount of money Michael Bloomberg had spent on his failed presidential run, about $500 million. Here’s what I said: “Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars.” | On MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” the night before, we mentioned a tweet, written by someone else, about the enormous amount of money Michael Bloomberg had spent on his failed presidential run, about $500 million. Here’s what I said: “Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars.” |
| The math, as a few people have pointed out, was wrong. Overnight, I had become an online sensation, and not in a good way. The video had gone viral, first shared by the right wing, and then by seemingly everyone else, too. | The math, as a few people have pointed out, was wrong. Overnight, I had become an online sensation, and not in a good way. The video had gone viral, first shared by the right wing, and then by seemingly everyone else, too. |
| Some people seemed surprised I couldn’t fact-check arithmetic on live TV. Let me assure you that my high school math teachers were not among those people. | Some people seemed surprised I couldn’t fact-check arithmetic on live TV. Let me assure you that my high school math teachers were not among those people. |
| Given my history with math, I thought the flub was pretty funny, too. I tried to laugh it off. “Buying a calculator,” I wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Brb.” | Given my history with math, I thought the flub was pretty funny, too. I tried to laugh it off. “Buying a calculator,” I wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Brb.” |
| In a normal time, that would have been the end of it. But the country has lost its mind, so instead, it was only the beginning. | In a normal time, that would have been the end of it. But the country has lost its mind, so instead, it was only the beginning. |
| Across social media, right-wing trolls celebrated. And some journalists did, too. Most of them were men who are prolific on Twitter. (Going out and doing actual reporting? That’s harder.) The next time they make a mistake, I hope people are nicer to them than they were to me. “How did this end up on TV?” one of them helpfully wrote, sharing the video. | |
| Unfortunately, quite a few Americans can tell you what it’s like to be the target of a Twitter mob over a gaffe. My great sin was trivial, harmless, silly. What’s it like when people are trying to cancel you for a math mistake? Weird, and maddening and painful. | Unfortunately, quite a few Americans can tell you what it’s like to be the target of a Twitter mob over a gaffe. My great sin was trivial, harmless, silly. What’s it like when people are trying to cancel you for a math mistake? Weird, and maddening and painful. |
| Of course, in my case it wasn’t really about math, as anyone who read through my mentions on Twitter or saw my inbox would know. | Of course, in my case it wasn’t really about math, as anyone who read through my mentions on Twitter or saw my inbox would know. |
| “You’re a great example of why we need to end Affirmative Action,” someone named Jim B. wrote me in an email this weekend. “Get a job scrubbing floors. It’s the only thing you’re good for.” | “You’re a great example of why we need to end Affirmative Action,” someone named Jim B. wrote me in an email this weekend. “Get a job scrubbing floors. It’s the only thing you’re good for.” |
| On Twitter, it was about the same. “Keep thinking that your important. Lol … your a nobody … you fill a seat … only because your Black. that’s the only reason. cause if was based on education or merit, you would be working at Walmart … sometimes the truth hurts … your a lowlife.” | On Twitter, it was about the same. “Keep thinking that your important. Lol … your a nobody … you fill a seat … only because your Black. that’s the only reason. cause if was based on education or merit, you would be working at Walmart … sometimes the truth hurts … your a lowlife.” |
| “Is that you using that black girl magic I heard about. You so silly, can’t believe you have a job there. LOL” | “Is that you using that black girl magic I heard about. You so silly, can’t believe you have a job there. LOL” |
| One email read simply, “have a banana.” | One email read simply, “have a banana.” |
| These are just a few examples of many. | These are just a few examples of many. |
| I am a black woman who writes for The New York Times and appears on national TV. And if you’re black in America, no matter who you are, what you accomplish or how hard you work, there will always be people to remind you that you are black, that you are “just a nigger.” | I am a black woman who writes for The New York Times and appears on national TV. And if you’re black in America, no matter who you are, what you accomplish or how hard you work, there will always be people to remind you that you are black, that you are “just a nigger.” |
| A colleague at The Times, an African-American woman, wrote to me on Friday afternoon, “They resent that you exist.” | A colleague at The Times, an African-American woman, wrote to me on Friday afternoon, “They resent that you exist.” |
| It didn’t help that I write for a newspaper where my colleagues are assiduously working to hold a rogue president accountable every day. We are living in a world where there is no grace for the smallest, most inconsequential mistake. In an instant, I became a target of those who are furious with the media for being too liberal, or not liberal enough, a totem for the grievances of millions of people who seem to be hurting. No doubt, some people piled on because they just wanted the “likes” and brushed aside the inconvenient fact that I was a human being. | It didn’t help that I write for a newspaper where my colleagues are assiduously working to hold a rogue president accountable every day. We are living in a world where there is no grace for the smallest, most inconsequential mistake. In an instant, I became a target of those who are furious with the media for being too liberal, or not liberal enough, a totem for the grievances of millions of people who seem to be hurting. No doubt, some people piled on because they just wanted the “likes” and brushed aside the inconvenient fact that I was a human being. |
| Several days into the experience, which is hell, I ran into an acquaintance on the street who informed me that the video clip had been shared on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.” I began to wonder how others in the same position had managed to carry on. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for Monica Lewinsky. I even had sympathy for the woman who was fired back in 2013 after tweeting a horrible joke about how she was on her way to Africa and hoped she didn’t get AIDS. | Several days into the experience, which is hell, I ran into an acquaintance on the street who informed me that the video clip had been shared on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.” I began to wonder how others in the same position had managed to carry on. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for Monica Lewinsky. I even had sympathy for the woman who was fired back in 2013 after tweeting a horrible joke about how she was on her way to Africa and hoped she didn’t get AIDS. |
| When something like this happens, it’s true that you know who your friends are. Friends and colleagues went into hand-to-hand combat defending me on Twitter. Others sent flowers. I heard from old friends and new ones, elected officials and former teachers, sources and fellow journalists, readers and ex-boyfriends. On Saturday, I received a gift from some high school friends. | When something like this happens, it’s true that you know who your friends are. Friends and colleagues went into hand-to-hand combat defending me on Twitter. Others sent flowers. I heard from old friends and new ones, elected officials and former teachers, sources and fellow journalists, readers and ex-boyfriends. On Saturday, I received a gift from some high school friends. |
| “This is a ‘We’re sorry you’re getting dragged on Twitter’ plant,” the note read. “We love you tons and are always here.” | “This is a ‘We’re sorry you’re getting dragged on Twitter’ plant,” the note read. “We love you tons and are always here.” |
| I write a lot about the underdog, which tends to make some people feel threatened, or simply uncomfortable. When I appeared on that TV program last week, I had been working for many days interviewing black voters in the South who were determined to defeat Donald Trump, whom they see as the nightmare embodiment of the old hatreds many of them fought to overcome. | |
| Many of those Americans had survived far worse under the racial terror of Jim Crow than anything I can imagine. I thought about the black man I met at the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., who had been beaten bloody by the police there half a century ago. I thought about the older black woman who approached me in a Selma coffee shop to tell me she was proud of me. I thought about my father, who grew up enduring the daily indignities of segregated South Carolina and Detroit. | Many of those Americans had survived far worse under the racial terror of Jim Crow than anything I can imagine. I thought about the black man I met at the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., who had been beaten bloody by the police there half a century ago. I thought about the older black woman who approached me in a Selma coffee shop to tell me she was proud of me. I thought about my father, who grew up enduring the daily indignities of segregated South Carolina and Detroit. |
| I am here because of them. And there is nothing the haters can do about it. | I am here because of them. And there is nothing the haters can do about it. |
| The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com. | The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com. |
| Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. | Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. |