Black voices matter too — #BVM

It give me hope that white folks are speaking out against racism and police brutality, and marching and hollering and protesting alongside black folks. This is a good thing. But being silent would also be a good thing.

Lemme ‘splain:

Whitesplaining.

I know we mean well. We really do. But our good intentions sometimes end up drowning out black voices. And, when our mouths are open, our ears are closed. As I said in my last column, we need to shut our privileged white mouths and listen. Even when the message is harsh.

No rebuttals, no rationalizations, no “but but but…”

Shut up and listen. And let the words sink in.

I was tested yesterday to see if I really will practice what I preach, when a friend emailed a New York Times opinion piece by Chad Sanders, and lemme tell ya… this one pinched.

Shut up and listen, anyway, Debra.

In his column, he says, “Many white people I know are spilling over with guilt and overzealous attempts to offer sympathy.” Sanders side-steps this because it isn’t the point. What white people need isn’t the point. What black people need is. While Sanders is simply trying to exist in the midst of this turmoil, he’s getting this from his white friends:

But brazen as ever, white people who have my phone number are finding a way to drain my time and energy. Some are friends, others old co-workers and acquaintances I’ve intentionally released from my life for the sake of my peace of mind. Every few days I receive a bunch of texts like this one, from last week:

“Hi friend. I just wanted to reach out and let you know I love you and so deeply appreciate you in my life and your stories in the world. And I’m so sorry. This country is deeply broken and sick and racist. I’m sorry. I think I’m tired; meanwhile I’m sleeping in my Snuggie of white privilege. I love you and I’m here to fight and be useful in any way I can be. **Heart emojis**

Almost every message ends with seven oppressive words — “Don’t feel like you need to respond.””

What he says next is extraordinary: “Not only are these people using me as a waste bin for guilt and shame, but they’re also instructing me on what not to feel, silencing me in the process.”

Their own guilt and shame. In other words, underneath it all, the messages ultimately relieve the sender’s feelings of white guilt and shame. They aren’t really meant for the receiver’s benefit. They’re meant for the sender’s.

Don’t start your “but but but” now. Let the man finish:

Not only are these people using me as a waste bin for guilt and shame, but they’re also instructing me on what not to feel, silencing me in the process. In an unusually honest admission of power imbalance, the texter is informing me I don’t have to respond. (Gee, thanks.) This implies that whether or not I do respond — and I usually don’t — the transaction is complete because their message has been conveyed. The texter can sleep more soundly in their ‘Snuggie of white privilege’.”

#ShutUpAndListen.

Yeah, it’s harsh. And no, it’s not being understanding of our needs. And we white folks need to stop expecting that black understanding of our needs is reasonable. We also need to stop speaking for black people. They’re quite capable of speaking their own minds and thoughts and feelings.

#ShutUpAndListen

Sanders’ column got me thinking about that “black square” social media protest last week. Many people started using a black square as their profile photo, or just made a black square the post of the day. I felt a little uneasy about it, so I started visiting my black friends’ Facebook pages to see if they were doing it. Not one was. I took my cue from them. The black square seemed just like what Sanders described: a Snuggie of white privilege. I read several comments from black folks saying that this black square day was yet another instance of their voices being silenced right when their voices needed to be heard the most.

I know people meant well. I know they felt like it was a show of support. Your heart can be in the right place even as your brain is out in left field. We can mean well even as we are actually hurting others.

So, my own little sometimes-in-left-field brain got to thinkin’. There are many black voices that my ears perk up and listen to, Barack and Michelle Obama at the top of that list. But there are others, and I want to shine a light on these in particular:

~  Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.

~  Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, Eddie Glaude Jr.

~  MSNBC host of AM Joy, Joy Reid.

~  Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart.

~  “Late Night with Seth Myers” writer Amber Ruffin.

~  New York Times columnist Charles Blow.

There are many more, but I wanted to keep the list tight because too many names, and it waters everything down. It’s harder to stand out in a sea of people, and I want them to stand out because these particular voices resonate with me. Deeply. When I shut up and listen to these people, without forming excuses or rebuttals in my mind, just take in what they are saying or writing, let it sink into my soul, I discover that my perception changes. My understanding increases. Try it. Turn down the volume on your own thoughts and just listen, and take it in. And… share their message. BUT! Share it without comment. They don’t need a white thumbs up for validation. They are already valid.

As these thoughts were tumbling around in my mind, another one drifted in: Not only do Black Lives Matter, but Black Voices also matter. And, it gave me an idea, yes it did. I want to start a #BlackVoicesMatter, and here are the simple rules: Share a black person’s post or column or video, one that really touches your heart or brightens your mind. But, with no comment other than #BlackVoicesMatter and #ShutUpAndListen.

That’s it. No white mouths moving. Only black.

And here’s another important lane to stay in: Should you feel moved to comment on someone else’s post of a black voice, it has to be an affirmation of that message: “I hear your pain.” “I understand your point.” “I recognize the injustice.” Make it about their message, not about whether or not you agree.

We white folks could learn a hell of a lot more with our ears — and minds — open, and with our mouths closed. Besides creating external change, by protesting all forms of racism, we can also create internal change by turning off our own “Snuggies of white privilege” and listening.

Which black voices touch, brighten, and enlighten you? Celebrate them! Cast their voices wherever you can! Because #BlackVoicesMatter too.

(I created a Black Voices Matter Facebook page, for posting blogs, columns, videos of black voices only. You are welcome to visit it, and post.)

 

Shut your privileged white mouth and listen

I don’t perceive myself as racist. Quite the opposite. I try really hard not to be. But sometimes, my privileged white foot steps in some shit. And there I am, doing my best to scrape it off.

I stepped in it on Facebook recently, while singing the praises of U.S. Representative Val Demings, who I’m hoping against hope will be Joe Biden’s running mate. In the midst of the burst of pain, anger, and outrage in this country over the murder of George Floyd, Demings wrote a brave and passionate op-ed in the Washington Post, in which she boldly confronted her fellow police officers about yet another abhorrent killing of a black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25. Yes, “fellow” officers. You see, not only is Demings a Congresswoman, she was a police officer for 27 years, part of which she spent as police chief.

Oh, yeah, she is all that and the bag of proverbial chips.

I discovered her during the impeachment trials. She blew me away. I listened to her speak and thought, “Who is THIS, and why isn’t she a contender for Biden’s runningmate? Well, now, apparently she is on his short list, and all my fingers and toes are crossed that Uncle Joe will recognize that Demings’ foot is the one that will fit his Cinderella slipper. Her perfect foot is in both camps: the black community and law enforcement! She is so uniquely qualified for this moment in time, and I will be over the moon to support BidenDemings2020.

Demings is one of those people who, when she speaks, your ears perk up. Your brain pays attention. Her voice rings like a bell. She has that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes her stand out in a sea of blah blah blah. In my Facebook post, I summarized her as: Smart. Experienced. Articulate.

Boom.

There it is.

“Articulate.”

Did you know that describing a black person as “articulate” is an insult? I certainly didn’t.

Heyyyyy…. what’s this stinky stuff on my shoe???

First, I was excoriated by an indignant white guy, which only pissed me off because there seems to be an overabundance of white people speaking on behalf of black people without their consent. “Whitesplaining.” So arrogant.

We went a few rounds after he proceeded to pelt me with belittling “Jane, you ignorant slut” insults. I insisted that not in my wildest imagination was I insulting Demings in any way, and pointed out to him that he didn’t have a problem with me describing her as “smart” or “experienced.” Following his logic, would these not also be backhanded slaps that insinuate blacks aren’t smart or experienced?

But he then produced a piercing story by Lynette Clemetson, a black woman, explaining that the history of this word is a back-handed slap to insinuate that blacks speak sloppily, and one who speaks eloquently is a bit of a unicorn. Which, of course, is just nuts. People still believe that sort of crap in this day and age? Why can’t I call an articulate black woman articulate, just like I would an articulate white woman? It doesn’t make any sense to me!

I wrestled with my immediate instinct to fight this issue to the death, because dammit, insulting Demings was the furthest thing from my mind, and let’s face it: She really is articulate, and I meant that from my heart. I want her to be our next vice-president, and first female president after that! I love this woman!

But there it was. From someone with personal experience. Someone who knows firsthand.

Me being me, I was ready to keep on slugging and prove my self-righteous point, and verbally take this guy down (he knows not with whom he deals!), but then I reread the story. Clemetson was/is spot on. And, despite my intense urge to prove I was right, which fuels most of my tooth-and-claw debates on and off Facebook… I pumped the brakes.

Hmmm.

Although another privileged white person chastising me for being another privileged white person just grates me the wrong way — the milk calling the sugar white — I realized that wasn’t the point. Clemetson’s story, and the history she revealed, were the point. I let it sink in. Turns out (brace yourself), I was wrong. Rather than argue, I decided to concede. I apologized, said I had no idea I was using an unkind word, and replaced the word in the post on the spot.

And then, another comment popped up in the thread, from a lady named Sylvia:

I am a 71 year old Black woman so I speak from years of experience. Whenever we’ve been told we are articulate, it means we don’t talk “black”, whatever that means. It’s like being asked if we’re educators just because we know how to properly use nouns and verbs. Long story short, it is most definitely not a compliment. I hope this explanation helps.

I was so touched by her gentleness and patience with my white privilege ineptitude, despite the fact that white folks, even well-meaning ones, don’t deserve any gentleness or patience from a black person, and yet… she extended that to me anyway. That really touched me. And impressed me deeply. This was my response to her:

Thank you for explaining this. I had NO IDEA.
The post has been updated.

This tiny exchange gave me a huge epiphany. Besides writing, I’m a massage therapist. I’ve had my own practice for 20 years. In the course of that practice, I’ve had a couple clients with fibromyalgia. They made no sense to me! So extremely sensitive! One of them yelped, “too deep!” when I first placed my hands on her back. I was only spreading the oil! I consulted with her physician, who explained that the nerves of a fibromyalgia patient interpret touch as pain. It doesn’t matter that I think my touch is light — all that matters is their experience of pain. It’s not my place to judge, it’s my place to accept their experience and adjust my approach accordingly.

Believe their pain. It’s so simple!

This prompted me think about the pain black people experience every single day — the pain that white people don’t know about because they never experience it. This utter cluelessness is the definition of “white privilege.” And thinking about fibromyalgia pain really snapped things into focus.

We need to believe people about their pain. When black people say “that hurts,” we privileged white folks need to believe them. Even if it doesn’t hurt us, even if we didn’t intend for it to hurt, even if we don’t understand why it hurts — we need to shut our mouths, nod our heads, listen, and acknowledge it. Particularly if we caused it. Our own understanding of that pain is irrelevant.

I don’t have fibromyalgia.

I’m not black.

I don’t understand either pain.

But I accept it.

And should a black person inform me about my pain, I’ll shut my mouth and simply listen. And if I caused that pain, I’ll take responsibility, apologize, and make a correction.

Will you?

 

Sirius XM is white male privilege radio

In the midst of paring down my expenses after setting off on adventures in self-employment over the summer, I jettisoned all sorts of stuff: hair care clubs, skin care clubs, subscriptions, and more. The one guilty little pleasure that survived the cut was my Sirius XM subscription. And you know what? I don’t really miss that other stuff. But I would have missed my XM radio, and that was reinforced to me last week, when I had to leave my car in the shop to get the radio replaced because it had an illumination issue. The lights weren’t on, even though the music was home.

So, I toodled around in a super cool Chevy Colorado that only had basic AM/FM (what sort of Third World country is this, anyway?), and I was more than ready to get my car and my tunes back. However, when I pulled away, I discovered that when they replaced the radio, the stations were randomly blasted all over — XM, AM and FM all scrambled together. I am entirely too OCD to tolerate this for more than five minutes, so at the first opportunity, I parked the car and methodically began restoring musical order, one station at a time: The Bridge, Deep Tracks, The Coffeehouse, Classic Rewind, Soul Town, yup… Sports channels, nope… MSNBC, check… BBC, check… NPR, check… Fox News, get the hell out the back door… ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, yup… Beatles, Tom Petty, Willie Nelson, yup, yup and yup.

I hadn’t set up my XM stations since I got the car years ago, and was wondering if there were any new stations since then. I figured I’d find out while I went along, and quickly filled up all six sets of station pre-sets. Damn. Out of room. Oh well, all my faves were still there (disgusting lack of a Led Zeppelin channel notwithstanding), and then it slowly dawned on me… heeeeyyyyyy…. There’s a channel for Tom and Willie, and also Elvis, Sinatra, Billy Joel, Garth Brooks and Ozzy Osbourne… where are all the legendary black artists?

Where are the Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson channels?? And, no PRINCE channel?? That is music blasphemy!!! Prince was the most talented human being to ever grace this planet! Otherwordly talented! And Kenny Chesney gets a channel before PRINCE? I call shenanigans. Or maybe I should just call racism. Because it’s painfully obvious that that’s what this is.

Sure there are a couple rap channels, but they’re devoted to Eminem and Pitbull! No black artists featured on the rap channels?? WTF?

And yes, I do like rap. Gimme a little Gin & Juice with my California Love, baybay…

AND! Where are the channels devoted to legendary female artists? I already mentioned Aretha… where’s the Barbra Streisand channel? Linda Ronstadt? Christina Aguilera? Whitney Houston for freak’s sake? Where the hell is Whitney? Can you even talk about American music without mentioning Whitney?

Taylor Swift? (OK, not that I’d listen to that one, but she is inarguably a pop icon with an immense following and therefore commercially lucrative.) Do you think an Alicia Keys channel is a tad overdue? The woman is a Goddess. She’s on fire! Give her a damn XM channel! And that goes double for Beyoncé. Ever hear of her, Sirius XM? Alicia is a Goddess, but Bey is the Queen of the musical universe! Where’s her XM channel, for freak’s sake?

No MADONNA channel?

What sort of fuckerie is this, anyway?? Like her or not, Madonna inarguably spun the music world on its ear.

Boom.

Mic drop.

Give her an XM channel!

Where the hell is the Lady Gaga Little Monsters channel?? She’s Madonna 2.0, and spun the music world onto its other ear! Get going on Gaga!

While we’re looking into sexual and racial diversity… how about a little brown, boys? Sure Pitbull claims Hispanic bloodlines and has an XM channel —  but is it because he looks like an average angry white guy, thereby making him safe and palpable to Sirius XM’s target audience: Mainstream White America? #Ugh.

How about a little brown in there, Sirius? Ever hear of a guy named Carlos Santana? Do you think maybe he deserves his own damn music channel? Would I listen to a Shakira channel? My hips won’t lie! Absolutely! Gloria Estefan?? I’ve worn out my Gloria CDs. It’s time to take her digital! Get her an XM channel, dammit!

Admittedly, relative to the vast number of legendary black, female and black female artists, there are few legendary Hispanic singers, so I could almost give Sirius XM a pass on that. Almost. Maybe not.

Hey SiriusXM: You may not have noticed, given that you exist in Whitey McWhite land, but here are a lot of Hispanics in the U.S. The Mexican music world is huge. And also wonderful. Why isn’t that reflected on Sirius XM? Donde esta  “La Musica” channel? Do you even begin to realize the depth of that untapped Hispanic music world? No. Clearly you do not. Do you further not realize that lots of white folks love Latin music?

I know.

Mind.

BLOWN.

But, first things first. The glaring lack of channels dedicated to legendary black or female or black female artists is downright shameful. American music would not exist as it does today without black singers and musicians. Period. Even more so than women. Black music is the bones of most all the music we know and love here in America. Why is this not represented on Sirius XM? Maybe because white privilege exists at the corporate level too? White privilege is less about what whites do experience than what they don’t experience. It’s just like male privilege: It’s not about what men do experience, it’s about what they don’t. With their white male featured channel lineup, Sirius XM is perpetuating a world where it’s all about white males, and everyone else can just divvy up whatever scraps are left over.

Hey, Sirius, XM: The 1950s called and they want their white male privilege back.

And also, Sirius XM, this is your official notice: You just been woke.

I know. It pinches. Feel the pinch and make it right anyway.

I see their faces

From time to time, horrifying images from the Holocaust death camps pass before my eyes, prompting me to consider the magnitude of the unfathomable cruelty inflicted on an entire race of living, breathing people… grandparents, children… young people… newlyweds… babies.

BABIES.

If I consider that moment in history long enough, it sucks the oxygen right from me. I don’t have the cruelty gene in me. I am unable to force my brain to even go there. I am intrinsically unable to inflict pain or violence on a completely innocent person. Sometimes as I consider what some humans have done to other humans, I seriously wonder if I’m simply not of the same species. Or maybe they’re not.

I was not yet born during World War II, so all of the images and stories from it are in shaded gray photographs and film clips… something that, while growing up, was a thing that happened a long time ago and shall never happen again. And of course, I grew up, and discovered that bigotry, racism and cruelty continue to flow through the collective psyche of our pathetically flawed species like a current of toxic waste.

I was watching some documentary awhile back, forget which one exactly, in which there was a video clip scanning past a group of starving, suffering Jewish women in a concentration camp… their eyes, pleading and pain-stricken… wrenching to look at. But not as painful as the eyes that held nothing at all anymore. Just dull resignation, like candle wicks gone cold. If you don’t convulse in compassion when you see such suffering… again, we are not of the same species.

And then… I suddenly imagined the faces of my Jewish friends in that clip… Sunny or Amy or Beatrice or Sivan or Beth or, or, or… and it was like a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus. Putting the faces of actual beloved women I know, women who have enhanced my life in so many immeasurable ways… imagining that every one of those faces touched other lives in the same way. I can’t even bear it.

The shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue yesterday again prompted me to think of my friends’ faces, male and female, and how any one of those people could have been them, and despair wells in my heart. Putting a personal face on these tragedies ratchets up your empathy. Try it. Think of your own Jewish friends behind hogwire in a death camp or being herded in for a “shower,” or simply attending a family religious ceremony peacefully in their house of worship and then being gunned down by a racist lunatic… that’ll make it sting a little more.

I was pondering all that this morning, thinking of my Jewish friends and how I’d feel if something happened to them, and then it hit me… thinking of familiar faces as victims was easy. But there’s another side to that coin. What about the faces of the perpetrators? Those who shout (or silently think but won’t speak the words) “All Jews Must Die!” Or all Blacks. Or all Liberals. Or, or, or… what if I insert the faces of people I know who hold racist views into the role of Nazi or mass shooter? That’s a whole nuther kind of sting.

Try it. Insert the face of the most racist person you know onto the Pittsburg shooter. You know who they are. They routinely spout racist, hateful things, parrot what they hear on Right Wing TV and radio; marginalize those they irrationally despise as the “other.” Their “other enemy.” The one who steals what they feel they’re entitled to, simply by virtue of the color of their skin or the symbol of their church.

I imagine people I know throwing the switch on the showers or firing their machine guns at emaciated, naked men standing on the precipice of a mass grave in a concentration camp… and laughing. Let me tell you, it’s a mind fuck. Stopping to consider that the murderers and torturers and mass shooters all have familiar faces too, to someone.

There’s the more difficult task. Putting a human face (rather than a monster’s) on those who hate and those who kill, and realizing that they’re around us too. I know people like that. But I don’t view them as friends. I can tolerate a great many things, but I will not tolerate a racist.

I’m not a violent person by nature. I don’t believe in physically lashing out to solve differences. However, words are also weapons. What happened in Pittsburgh has renewed my resolve. I will stab a verbal machete into hateful, divisive words. Not into the people saying them. Just their words, their bigotries, their actions. Stab a machete through those. Every. Single. Time.

Yes, words are weapons. Very powerful ones. But the larger weapon is silence. If you aren’t brave enough to slash hatred with words, at least don’t tolerate it. Walk away from hateful people. Shun them. Cut them out of your life. Let them know it’s not OK and you refuse to tolerate it. Don’t participate in enabling their poisoned souls. If you think about it, shunning a racist is an act of kindness, because silence equals endorsement. It assists that person in remaining psychologically toxic.

Silence. Stab a machete through that. If you have to start there, then start there. A small start is better than no start at all.

“Silence must die.”

Megyn Kelly, we hardly knew ye

Photo by Vulture.com.

I know when I say that I’m feeling sorry for Megyn Kelly, it’ll have the same reaction as farting in a crowded room. People will wrinkle their noses and get as far away as possible. Well, hold your nose, because I do.

Kelly is one of NBC’s more recent news anchors, with her own block of the Today show at 9 a.m., and what made her actually interesting is that she’s a Fox “News” transplant. She arrived on the Blue side of television after departing from Fox, maybe after an epiphany that the truthfulness of most everything spoken on that network, with the possible exception of the weather, was suspect. Somewhere along the line — maybe after Donald Trump so famously referred to her as “bleeding from her wherever” after she grilled him mercilessly during a presidential debate regarding his blatant misogyny — Megyn had to choose between her integrity and her paycheck.

Brava! You chose well, Megyn!

That said, at first, that was an awfully hard Left turn for me to navigate. I had to set down my precious disdain for anything and everything associated with Fox “News” and give Megyn a chance. She was walking away from the Dark Side, and in my mind, that deserved such a chance because maybe she is setting an example. Others on the Radical Right may follow her lead. Megyn was a walking talking crossover vehicle for Fox viewers realizing they needed to hightail it to somewhere sane. Or maybe they were just tired of being assholes. Whatever the reason, Megyn pointed out the exit a door for those folks.

I remained skeptical of course, because Megyn had been hanging out with the likes of Laura Ingraham and Anne Coulter, but she seemed to be reasonably human after all, unlike her former harpy co-workers. By all accounts, Megyn — with a reputation for being fearless and articulate — was doing just fine at NBC. She was learning to adapt to a liberal atmosphere. She was gaining a new audience and siphoning away some of Fox’s. And then, yesterday… she face-planted.

Oh, Megyn, Megyn… how is it possible that anyone your age, with a background in journalism, (which implies that you know how to check facts and do research) doesn’t understand the inherent racism of blackface? Blackface was designed to ridicule an entire race, one that has experienced (and still experiences) horrific treatment and , sadly, ongoing racism? You’re a smart gal… but this was your “I didn’t know Chicken of the Sea wasn’t chicken!” moment. We’re left slack-jawed in amazement that anyone could be that dense.

But there it was.

“It’s not chicken???”

And, like a toddler asking completely inappropriate questions at the most awkward moment, Megyn continued and asked why blackface was racist if it’s Halloween and you’re dressing up like a character, citing a TV personality who dressed up like Diana Ross and wore dark makeup. Megyn asked, “Why is that wrong? Who doesn’t love Diana Ross?”

Ummm… ummm… how to put this in a way that even a clueless innocent might understand…  Because not everyone feels the same way about everything, and what is not painful for you is very painful for someone else, and therefore, in civilized society, we don’t do things that hurt other people.

Maybe that’s a start… and then hand Megyn a U.S. history book and send her to her room and tell her she can’t come out until she’s read the whole thing, and oh yes, there will be a pop quiz.

I watched Megyn stumble deeper and deeper into the mud of her own making in that segment, while her guests squirmed uncomfortably, trying to explain how blackface, even on Halloween, is offensive. It was one of those moments where you want to grab someone by the back of the neck and walk them away and hiss in her ear, “Just stop talking!!!”

The backlash from this incident was swift and harsh. Did she have it coming? Oh, yeah. We must hold people — particularly those in positions of power —  accountable. The following morning, a visibly angered Al Roker, the usually jovial weatherman for the Today show, said that although Megyn apologized to her staff, audience and co-workers, she owed a larger apology to all of People of Color for saying something so offensive. Roker was spot on. She deserved to get the stink-eye in the company cafeteria for a good long time. But Megyn listened, and quickly issued what seemed like a heartfelt apology and, more important, she finally “got it” — blackface is just completely offensive, in all situations. Even on Halloween. She learned something, dammit! But that wasn’t enough for NBC. By the end of the next day, Oct. 24, the news was out that Megyn was being canned by NBC.

NBC… I get WHY you made that decision, because you must be pristinely PC, however, jettisoning Megyn wasn’t a very well-considered move. Given, Megyn revealed that she has some astounding blind spots in her understanding of U.S. history and racism. However, if you watch the clip, she seems to be genuinely trying to understand. She didn’t seem mean or intentionally hurtful  — just utterly clueless.

It’s not chicken. It’s tuna. They called it Chicken of the Sea to get squeamish people in the 1950s to try canned fish, and probably also to play on the “tastes like chicken” explanation for anything that tastes dicey. And the mermaid on the logo… also not chicken. There are no chickens in the sea. It’s tuna. TUNA. OK? 

I know, Megyn…

Mind.

BLOWN.

So, let’s just go with the theory that somehow, Megyn never learned the truth about blackface in all these years. She existed in the Fox “News” echo chamber, and remained completely clueless… Blithely going through life hurting and offending people without ever realizing it. But here’s the thing… stop and consider how many other essentially kind but grotesquely clueless Americans there are out there? Megyn represents an uncomfortably large portion of the population that’s just as clueless, and harbors the exact same questions. But at least Megyn asked. She was trying to understand. And then, holy cow, did she get a heaping helping of understanding from every direction. Oh, she “gets it” now.

And got canned anyway.

That’s troubling for other potential Fox crossovers, who are beginning to have an inkling that what they’re hearing isn’t quite accurate. Like Megyn, it’s as if they’ve been raised by wolves and have no idea how to behave like a human. But they’re trying to understand. They want to ask questions. But having seen Megyn excoriated for her clumsy attempt to gain understanding, and may think instead… “Hmmm… if I ask a question, I’ll get my head chopped off too. Think I’ll stay in the Fox hole where it’s safe.” And just like that, we prevented more folks from seeking truth. Remaining ignorant is less painful than ridicule.

Well, we didn’t. NBC, this one’s on you. You botched a truly teachable moment. One that could have opened up a conversation and raised awareness and understanding. But, in a knee-jerk reaction, you didn’t look outside your own interests and ratings to recognize that Megyn blundered into the tip of an ugly racist iceberg. You had your chance to bust it up, and by firing Megyn, you are helping it to continue drifting along. You should have accepted her apology, issued a stern statement, and encouraged Megyn to start thinking, looking and interacting outside her lily white box.

For a network that likes to trot out the “The More You Know” tagline, you really blew it. it was a chance for Megyn and so many more like her to know more. And now they won’t.