There’s a big difference between a fratboy who thoughtlessly makes an insensitive comment and then, upon being called on it, says, “It’s just a joke, bro,” and what I did, which is a conscious effort to write something ridiculous, racist and offensive in order to show, through the device of parody, how ridiculous, racist and offensive the NAACP announcement was. If you can’t appreciate the difference between those, I’m not sure what I can say that will convince you of anything, but if it helps, think of it sort of like Stephen Colbert in his former role of acting as an exaggerated version of Bill O’Reilly, not in order to praise O’Reilly but to mock him and those like him. Then imagine someone like you coming along and telling Colbert that he’s offensive and racist and serving as a right-wing enabler and quoting Colbert’s own words in the role to prove the point. A Colbert defender would likely respond to that not by saying, “It’s just a joke, bro,” but by saying, “Um…I think you might’ve missed the point.” And that’s what I’m saying to you. In response to the NAACP’s exhibition of ignorant and absurd racism, I’m writing something against racism, not in favor of it, but to do that, just like Colbert, I’m exaggerating the absurdity that’s already there in the thing I’m parodying, and then, in addition, I’m simply reversing the polarity of the racism (because people in our society at the present moment seem to see racism more clearly when it’s directed against black people). To tell me, in response to that, “Hey, you’re making racist generalizations about the ghetto!” is obviously totally missing the point.
To prove to me that your response was still somehow in order, however, you then make recourse not to what I actually wrote but to the comments of others on what I wrote. If you think that’s a good argument, my suggestion to you would be to go to the website of any major publication that doesn’t curate its stream of “comments,” whether liberal or conservative, and take a look at all the completely insane things that are being said by people at the low end of the IQ distribution and on the fringes of the political spectrum (the ones who tend, inevitably, to be the most vocal and outspoken amongst us). Having said that, the top comment on my article that you’re referring to was, like the article itself, just poking fun at so much of the silliness that’s going on in our society at this point. You say that it’s “a mockery on the left’s peaceful protests,” but my viewpoint is different. While protests have their place, I think most of the protests that are going on right now are both vapid and disrespectful. What is more, I think they are ultimately extremely harmful to the causes they claim to espouse. I’ve described my general view of the protests here:
So, I think this may ultimately just come down to a difference in viewpoints between you and me, and that’s fine. It’s okay to disagree.
