Late one afternoon, our neighbor across the street, Racist Jim, knocked on our door. I had better things to do than talk to our racist neighbor, so I told our dog, Mortimer, to tell Jim that I wasn’t home. Mortimer barked out my message, but I guess Jim understands dog whistles better than dogs because he kept knocking. Against my better judgement, I answered the door.
My favorite thing to do with racists, sexists, and homophobes is to play dumb. If they make a racist comment like "We all know what Black/Hispanic/Asian people are like..." I just give them a blank look and say "I have no idea what you mean." Then when they elaborate on their racism, I just keep saying them to say "I don't understand." This forces them to get more and more explicit in their racism, which usually makes them uncomfortable to state so blatantly, and forces them to hear how awful they sound. Finally, I say with a shocked voice, "Oh, is THAT what you mean? I disagree completely with views like that." And then I leave.
You lost your job at PC Magazine because your ProtonMail inbox was hacked and your secret information about Trump’s plan to become a virus and infect all PCs and turn their owners anti-woke was released on Bing. You had to go underground and get a new identity as a Substack writer using a Mac. But you will always be dedicated to the cause: Make America great again. And those who know, know. Like your neighbor. That’s why he knew that you worked for PC Magazine.
1. I’m in South Brooklyn’s rightist capital. “Blue Lives Matter” marches started two blocks from my place during the George Floyd protests. I felt a strange urge to take an indoor day.
2. A couple my age likes arguing in front of my building. As far as I can tell, she should’ve left a year ago, but procrastinates. In the guy’s defense, he’s great at producing CO2.
3. Brand recognition and low overhead are pathways to abilities some would consider unnatural.
4. I’m guessing you called Edge “the Burger King of browsers” mid-Microsoft interview.
(Sidebar: He definitely thought “politically correct” magazine at some point, and got his wires crossed.)
5. Yup, drawn by the siren call of a free AI toy. I wasn’t very impressed. Of course, Bill’s always been about “second, worse, and cheaper,” so what do I know?
1. Not overtly, but since I live in the great city of Chicago I'm surrounded by the fruits of decades of structural racism. Typically, when confronted with bad neoliberalist takes and casual Reaganite racism I never it slide, and challenge every bad faith assertion.
2. A recent incident forced me to sign an NDA.
3. One of my best friends still uses it. #the_olds
4. They found out you were working for MacWorld as a spy.
5. Every day actually! On purpose! I have a Microsoft Surface, and I use Internet Explorer. If I didn't force myself to suffer daily I'd become soft and decadent.
This is the most I've laughed all week. It also got me thinking about how some anti-racist content gets taken down on platforms because it quotes a Jim, and the trigger words automatically flag the piece. This is a shame because laughter is one way to deal with racists in everyday life... maybe.
Empirical evidence, academic research, and well-crafted arguments don't seem to persuade racist people in my life. Well, they don't feel racist; they just prefer all-white neighbourhoods and ultra-right-wing parties that promise to keep immigrants out.
Here are a few convos from the past year:
Convo 1:
Me: I've taught hundreds of Chinese students and noticed how racist some can be towards Indians.
Cousin: That doesn't make any sense. How can Chinese people be racist? They're also different.
Me: Different from what?
Cousin: Normal people.
Me: As in white people?
Cousin: Yes.
*Also, by Indians, I mean people from India, not how the word is misused in America.
Convo 2:
New Aunt: As a Latina, it's been incredibly difficult for me in Belgium. I came from the upper class, had maids, went to university, and when I came here, people started looking at me like I was below them.
Me: Like you weren't part of the upper class?
New Aunt: Even worse.
Me: Oh... that must be difficult.
New Aunt: They're so ignorant.
Me: It's a shame people get treated like secondhand citizens based on their appearance or where they're from.
New Aunt: Exactly.
Two days later...
New Aunt: If I could vote, I'd vote for Vlaams Belang
Nolan: But they hate immigrants.
New Aunt: Yes, well, we can't keep paying for these immigrants feasting off the tax from the money we make. Extreme solutions need an extreme party.
Convo 3:
Ukrainian acquaintance: I hate socialism. I mean, as a Ukrainian with a job, I rarely get any help, but those blacks from Africa come into France, and they get whatever they want.
Alright, this one didn't actually turn into a conversation. I stormed off, afraid of what I might scream. In the other two situations, I argued and showed stats about how immigrants help an economy, etc., but it got me nowhere. Yet, I've seen every one of the people I mentioned welcome those from different religions, backgrounds, and skin colours into their homes with respect, openness, curiosity, laughter, and an abundance of food. Maybe the best way to deal with racists (or who some call racist) is not to argue or belittle but to bring people together with a shared goal. Seeds of Peace: Building Peace at Summer Camp would is a good example of this.
1. I rarely encounter "people" in my everyday life, apart from my husband and kids and they're decent. We do live in a neighborhood where a few people are very proud of their right to hang whatever divisive shit they want off the front of their houses. Like the couple (or it may have been a middle-aged woman and her dad) who hung the massive "FUCK BIDEN AND EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR HIM" flag off their front porch, which happened to be about a foot off the sidewalk where parents and their kids walk every day to get to the elementary school. I used to say hi to them when I walked by their house until they hung up that flag that was blatantly giving me the finger. It's probably wrong for me to assume they were racist based on their political leaning. But I think it was safe for me to assume they were dicks.
2. The dingbats in 1) have since moved out of our neighborhood. I don't have a personal beef with anyone else ATM. There are actually a lot of solid citizens in our midst, and we like to count ourselves among them.
3. Never had hotmail. But I did use Yahoo for years. That account still lives as a dumping ground for spam and vendors I once had to set up accounts with but never wanted to deal with again. The account is probably becoming sentient in its dormant state.
4. You got two [sic] lose [sic] lipped about the boss' shady surveillance of employee hotmale [sic] accounts.
5. Yes. But only when I'm too lazy to open my Duck Duck Go browser. So... a fair amount. 😂 Also, I like to ignore Google's suggestions (like the one that tells me to switch to Chrome as my default browser) as much as possible. They own half my life already; I don't need to give them my search history too.
My wife still uses it. She swears its safe but she has little to no web presence and refuses to post anything on FB after she fell headfirst into an argument and got kicked out of a mom group! She's very Dutch...that is, very direct with her words.
I travel the US so, yes, I encounter racists everywhere. My strategy is to say “Really?”, then turn away while rolling my eyes and move on. It’s not my job to fix people
See my previous answer. I just move on when my neighbors annoy me. And if they delight me also.
Hotmail? I have several accounts. But my main account is a random mixture of letters and numbers hidden away behind a SneakEmail account. Hotmail IS free after all and not controlled by Google who has always been evil.
You lost your job at PC Magazine just like everyone else at PC Magazine lost their job, The Internet.
Bing was great until Microsoft started turning it into Google. Microsoft isn’t a Silicon Valley company. They were in Arizona then Washington state. But Bill is still a Tech Bro.
Obviously, there is no PC Magazine in the first place; it was all a front for Hunter Biden's criminal schemes to smuggle cocaine inside laptops into every computer store across the nation, and he had you loose [sic] your job so you couldn't expose the truth.
We live in Catalunya, which is famously nationalistic/xenophobic. After four years, we have a full evening's worth of stories about all the times we've been excoriated for not speaking Catalan rather than Spanish, and urged to go back where we came from (San Francisco.) Friends from various South American countries tell us "sudaca" (a pejorative for "South American") is on every other person's lips, as is the n-word ("It's OK, we're not American, we can say it" - No.) Jim would love it here, he could really cut loose.
1. Are you kidding? I grew up in Texas. My childhood best friend was angry that there was a Spanish mass at a Hispanic church nearby. She thinks everyone should speak English. She says she's descended from royalty in GB. Forgot that we freed ourselves from the British.
2. My neighbor is Russian and believes Putin was liberating Ukraine from Nazis. We walked our dogs for years before I knew this. I argue with her constantly. I suspect she is a spy and I'm her project to report back to Putin about American liberals.
Jul 25, 2023·edited Jul 25, 2023Liked by Michael Estrin
“That’s an easy job,” Jim said. “Everyone knows how to write.”
be damned if these dolts don't occasionally come out with words of pure genius
i assume you comped him copy of NSFW im savin the bulk of it for my August fun-time (thats when i start REALLY needing stuff to get fire in circle goin'!! heeeeehee
My favorite thing to do with racists, sexists, and homophobes is to play dumb. If they make a racist comment like "We all know what Black/Hispanic/Asian people are like..." I just give them a blank look and say "I have no idea what you mean." Then when they elaborate on their racism, I just keep saying them to say "I don't understand." This forces them to get more and more explicit in their racism, which usually makes them uncomfortable to state so blatantly, and forces them to hear how awful they sound. Finally, I say with a shocked voice, "Oh, is THAT what you mean? I disagree completely with views like that." And then I leave.
I’m also still using hotmail myself, so this felt like watching It’s A Wonderful Life and realizing I wear the same hat as Mr. Potter.
You lost your job at PC Magazine because your ProtonMail inbox was hacked and your secret information about Trump’s plan to become a virus and infect all PCs and turn their owners anti-woke was released on Bing. You had to go underground and get a new identity as a Substack writer using a Mac. But you will always be dedicated to the cause: Make America great again. And those who know, know. Like your neighbor. That’s why he knew that you worked for PC Magazine.
1. I’m in South Brooklyn’s rightist capital. “Blue Lives Matter” marches started two blocks from my place during the George Floyd protests. I felt a strange urge to take an indoor day.
2. A couple my age likes arguing in front of my building. As far as I can tell, she should’ve left a year ago, but procrastinates. In the guy’s defense, he’s great at producing CO2.
3. Brand recognition and low overhead are pathways to abilities some would consider unnatural.
4. I’m guessing you called Edge “the Burger King of browsers” mid-Microsoft interview.
(Sidebar: He definitely thought “politically correct” magazine at some point, and got his wires crossed.)
5. Yup, drawn by the siren call of a free AI toy. I wasn’t very impressed. Of course, Bill’s always been about “second, worse, and cheaper,” so what do I know?
1. Not overtly, but since I live in the great city of Chicago I'm surrounded by the fruits of decades of structural racism. Typically, when confronted with bad neoliberalist takes and casual Reaganite racism I never it slide, and challenge every bad faith assertion.
2. A recent incident forced me to sign an NDA.
3. One of my best friends still uses it. #the_olds
4. They found out you were working for MacWorld as a spy.
5. Every day actually! On purpose! I have a Microsoft Surface, and I use Internet Explorer. If I didn't force myself to suffer daily I'd become soft and decadent.
This is the most I've laughed all week. It also got me thinking about how some anti-racist content gets taken down on platforms because it quotes a Jim, and the trigger words automatically flag the piece. This is a shame because laughter is one way to deal with racists in everyday life... maybe.
Empirical evidence, academic research, and well-crafted arguments don't seem to persuade racist people in my life. Well, they don't feel racist; they just prefer all-white neighbourhoods and ultra-right-wing parties that promise to keep immigrants out.
Here are a few convos from the past year:
Convo 1:
Me: I've taught hundreds of Chinese students and noticed how racist some can be towards Indians.
Cousin: That doesn't make any sense. How can Chinese people be racist? They're also different.
Me: Different from what?
Cousin: Normal people.
Me: As in white people?
Cousin: Yes.
*Also, by Indians, I mean people from India, not how the word is misused in America.
Convo 2:
New Aunt: As a Latina, it's been incredibly difficult for me in Belgium. I came from the upper class, had maids, went to university, and when I came here, people started looking at me like I was below them.
Me: Like you weren't part of the upper class?
New Aunt: Even worse.
Me: Oh... that must be difficult.
New Aunt: They're so ignorant.
Me: It's a shame people get treated like secondhand citizens based on their appearance or where they're from.
New Aunt: Exactly.
Two days later...
New Aunt: If I could vote, I'd vote for Vlaams Belang
Nolan: But they hate immigrants.
New Aunt: Yes, well, we can't keep paying for these immigrants feasting off the tax from the money we make. Extreme solutions need an extreme party.
Convo 3:
Ukrainian acquaintance: I hate socialism. I mean, as a Ukrainian with a job, I rarely get any help, but those blacks from Africa come into France, and they get whatever they want.
Alright, this one didn't actually turn into a conversation. I stormed off, afraid of what I might scream. In the other two situations, I argued and showed stats about how immigrants help an economy, etc., but it got me nowhere. Yet, I've seen every one of the people I mentioned welcome those from different religions, backgrounds, and skin colours into their homes with respect, openness, curiosity, laughter, and an abundance of food. Maybe the best way to deal with racists (or who some call racist) is not to argue or belittle but to bring people together with a shared goal. Seeds of Peace: Building Peace at Summer Camp would is a good example of this.
1. I rarely encounter "people" in my everyday life, apart from my husband and kids and they're decent. We do live in a neighborhood where a few people are very proud of their right to hang whatever divisive shit they want off the front of their houses. Like the couple (or it may have been a middle-aged woman and her dad) who hung the massive "FUCK BIDEN AND EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR HIM" flag off their front porch, which happened to be about a foot off the sidewalk where parents and their kids walk every day to get to the elementary school. I used to say hi to them when I walked by their house until they hung up that flag that was blatantly giving me the finger. It's probably wrong for me to assume they were racist based on their political leaning. But I think it was safe for me to assume they were dicks.
2. The dingbats in 1) have since moved out of our neighborhood. I don't have a personal beef with anyone else ATM. There are actually a lot of solid citizens in our midst, and we like to count ourselves among them.
3. Never had hotmail. But I did use Yahoo for years. That account still lives as a dumping ground for spam and vendors I once had to set up accounts with but never wanted to deal with again. The account is probably becoming sentient in its dormant state.
4. You got two [sic] lose [sic] lipped about the boss' shady surveillance of employee hotmale [sic] accounts.
5. Yes. But only when I'm too lazy to open my Duck Duck Go browser. So... a fair amount. 😂 Also, I like to ignore Google's suggestions (like the one that tells me to switch to Chrome as my default browser) as much as possible. They own half my life already; I don't need to give them my search history too.
My wife still uses it. She swears its safe but she has little to no web presence and refuses to post anything on FB after she fell headfirst into an argument and got kicked out of a mom group! She's very Dutch...that is, very direct with her words.
Lol the stringer bell rule. It’s funny how people think the Nazis were evil geniuses--have you seen todays fascists?
I travel the US so, yes, I encounter racists everywhere. My strategy is to say “Really?”, then turn away while rolling my eyes and move on. It’s not my job to fix people
See my previous answer. I just move on when my neighbors annoy me. And if they delight me also.
Hotmail? I have several accounts. But my main account is a random mixture of letters and numbers hidden away behind a SneakEmail account. Hotmail IS free after all and not controlled by Google who has always been evil.
You lost your job at PC Magazine just like everyone else at PC Magazine lost their job, The Internet.
Bing was great until Microsoft started turning it into Google. Microsoft isn’t a Silicon Valley company. They were in Arizona then Washington state. But Bill is still a Tech Bro.
Obviously, there is no PC Magazine in the first place; it was all a front for Hunter Biden's criminal schemes to smuggle cocaine inside laptops into every computer store across the nation, and he had you loose [sic] your job so you couldn't expose the truth.
1. I live in North Carolina. My community is pleasant and inclusive, but drive ten minutes in any direction…
2. No complaints.
3. I know two people whose email address ends in aol.com.
4. You recommended some freeware that didn’t contain a virus?
5. I have. I swear, I was just experimenting! I’ll stop, I promise.
We live in Catalunya, which is famously nationalistic/xenophobic. After four years, we have a full evening's worth of stories about all the times we've been excoriated for not speaking Catalan rather than Spanish, and urged to go back where we came from (San Francisco.) Friends from various South American countries tell us "sudaca" (a pejorative for "South American") is on every other person's lips, as is the n-word ("It's OK, we're not American, we can say it" - No.) Jim would love it here, he could really cut loose.
you are a hard ass 😉🤣
1. Are you kidding? I grew up in Texas. My childhood best friend was angry that there was a Spanish mass at a Hispanic church nearby. She thinks everyone should speak English. She says she's descended from royalty in GB. Forgot that we freed ourselves from the British.
2. My neighbor is Russian and believes Putin was liberating Ukraine from Nazis. We walked our dogs for years before I knew this. I argue with her constantly. I suspect she is a spy and I'm her project to report back to Putin about American liberals.
3. Hotmail? No.
4. Google? Yes. That Fox thing is good too.
“That’s an easy job,” Jim said. “Everyone knows how to write.”
be damned if these dolts don't occasionally come out with words of pure genius
i assume you comped him copy of NSFW im savin the bulk of it for my August fun-time (thats when i start REALLY needing stuff to get fire in circle goin'!! heeeeehee