I know it's not very sensitive to mock someone who is obviously psychologically disturbed. However, if you insist on publicly calling me a "stupid bigot" and even a "white supremicist" who would actually support the institution of black slavery in modern America- well, really, you're asking to be made sport with, aren't you?
Mac Diva, now a former Blogcritic, went ballistic repeatedly in the comments section of my column "Colorless Friends." After several orgasmic gushes of racial invective, she announced her resignation from Blogcritics.
Today, she added to that by notifying us that she intends to write a letter to Amazon about our evil racist website, noting four specific examples of our awful bigotry. I'm proud to note that they are all Al Barger columns- two of which are from my personal website and are not even at Blogcritics.
The intent would be to convince Amazon's management that my writing is so heinously offensive that they would want to drop our routine Blogcritics commission deal with Amazon that helps to pay the basic costs of the site.
That's pretty spiteful of her. Still, I do like the attention. Let me return the attention by addressing to Mac Diva personally some follow-up comments on the specific columns of mine to which offense was taken.
Ms Diva- Thanks for the plugs for my writing [comment #49], but I'm a little confused by your choices.
You seem to think that I'm commiting some hate crime for not even expressing an opinion, but simply stating the FACT that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free any slaves. If you like, I can post this to Blogcritics for your public critique. Indeed, I think I will.
You apparently think I commited another hate crime by expressing the opinion that the federal government was wrong to murder members of Randy Weaver's family over a trumped up weapons charge based on entrapment. I have no idea how you could possibly twist this into some charge of hatred on MY part. Hey, it wasn't ME that was murdering women and children.
Granted, Mr. Weaver has been reputed to have had some negative attitudes about some ethnic groups. However, he was living up in the mountains doing no one any harm; he voluntarily put himself on time-out from society. Am I commiting a hate crime for expressing the opinion that it's wrong for the government to murder the families of anyone suspected to hold low opinions of ethnic minorities?
Finally, thanks for plugging the "Chuck D is a signifying monkey" column. I'm particularly proud of that one. Unlike the other two examples, this does at least involves me criticizing a person of color. However, I don't see how you can really accuse ME of "racism" for the crime of calling out a racial demagogue like Chuck D. [In fairness, he has toned down his rhetoric a bit in recent years, with some comments that mitigate his infamous disrespectful statements about Elvis Presley in particular.]
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - John Mudd
Howard Troxler, one of the St. Petersburg Times' most excellent columnists, once told me that if you're not making people think, you're really not doing your job as a columnist, and he said that, generally, you're job isn't to make everybody happy with what you're writing about. Of course, I'm paraphrasing from a 1999 interview I had with him, but his writing is still excellent and he obviously isn't writing to make people happy. He writes to breathe life into important, yet, sometimes ignored issues that should be discussed by the public.
Blogs are opinion outlets. Blogcritics is a collective of what are mostly opinion writers, or columnists who write here for free (or for more traffic to their other websites, which may or may not be for free). Since everyone's opinions are different, everyone is naturally going to disagree at some point, but the good thing about disagreements are that they stimulate discussion, which is the foundation of our free society, however, when someone takes what is said out of context and/or personally, the effect isn't always positive.
It appears that's what happened in this case, although, I do find backstabbing (i.e., trying to get Amazon to cut its ties with Blogcritics) for a simple misunderstanding to be, well, a bit immature. After all, if you don't like Blogcritics, you can always start your own blog-collective to compete with it.
I read stuff on here that I disagree with all the time, however, I don't always let everyone know I disagree with it, and I don't take any of it personally. If I can do that, so can anyone else.
Cheers.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks John, a very mature and clear-headed view of things - like you said, opinion breeds disagreement. We should all feel free to express our opinions and disagreement with opinions and not take it personally - it's called debate. There is a line beyond which debate becomes personal attack, but I have not seen that crossed here.
Beyond clear hate speech - none of which has been expressed here, and none would be tolerated - I am certain Amazon doesn't give a rat's ass. It's called free speech.
Some people simply can't tolerate being publicly disagreed with.
3 - Natalie Davis
Some people do not come here for debate.
That said, I feel sad for MD and for Mr. Barger, for differing reasons.
4 - Eric Olsen
I am never pleased when someone feels the need to disassociate themselves from us. I do take that somewhat personally as it is very important to me for all members to feel comfortable with expressing themselves freely, and I feel a sense of responsibility to foster that kind of environment. I am saddened when someone feels that has been violated, but I also know that in any large group of people, there will be those who feel the need to go their own ways for whatever reason and I cannot control that, much as I would like to.
5 - Craig Lyndall
hey Al, I agree with you on this one. I don't agree with every point that you post around here all the time, because that would be a ridiculous expectation. In this case, while I agree with you, I am dissappointed that you wrote this. I feel like with MD leaving and everything it should have been a dead issue. Nobody was convinced that you were a bigot by her comments on the other post. You didn't need to say anything else. You eloquently defended yourself from a silly claim already.
I don't know. If I were in your position, I would have been pissed too, but I think you could have taken the high road. This was purposely put out here to pour salt in the wound. It isn't racist or bigoted, but it is fucking mean, and unnecessary.
I am sad that MD felt the need to leave. I am upset that the boiling blood of anger blinded her from seeing that nobody was attacking her.
6 - Dew
Hmmm as a 'person of color' (like we all arent people of color) I do not know whether this will hurt, hender or harm 'the Black Movement' but suffice it to say I must be heard or read...
Painstakingly I must admit that Al, no matter how zealous and unrelenting in its efforts still deserves the right to express his opinion, no matter how unruling it may be. His unyielding attempt to provoke reactions is exactly the main reason I love this site. Its the left field attitudes that force the rest of us to either sh*t or get off the pot(excuse my french).
I can not speak for others but I enjoy that. Being of unsound mind and body I do not take pleasure in anything too easy. If there is no challenge there is no interest, so Al, Andy and Joe are all necessary. Were some of their comments out of line? Hell yea! But so were the Diva's. She let her personal outrage remove her objectiveness causing her point to be moot. Hey, it happens to the best of us.
I don't think what the 3 musketeers (yea I said it) said warrented her resignation, especially since it seemed she had been quite a contributor. If nothing else she should have been more willing and adamant about creating a presence that would supress what she perceived as their bigotry...But eh, what do I know?
7 - Craig Lyndall
Dew, I agree with you also. Al has a right to be heard, I just felt we already heard him loud and clear and maybe he could shake up the site in a different way and let the dead horse rot.
8 - Joe
I think Dew should be held responsible as she's the root cause for all this. I mean, it was her post that originally started the whole fracas (3 musketeers! Well, I never!). I must go now and prepare racist rhetoric to unleash on the unthinking masses.
9 - TDavid
This is purely from a technical perspective here but the part that bothered me was when MD posted that she was going to remove all her prior posts.
Huh?
Nobody should have that right, including the author. If I submit something to blogcritics then it is meant to stay there unless it contains something that would get the site in some sort of legal trouble (which I'm never going to post anything like that).
If Movable Type has this type of delete function where an author can go in and easily delete everything they have contributed because they no longer like the site that should be on the list to disable.
A window of time could be made for edit/delete if the article just totally doesn't work for something like say 1-2 hours (and also allow for spelling or small word changes which I'm sure we all make from time to time), but I think that especially once comments from others start rolling in that it is total BS for anybody to totally remove that article (save for legal reasons as already mentioned).
Over the years I've seen a few forum moderators behave this way. They get pissed and the first thing that they do is want to start using their admin powers to fuck with the website. That's weak.
If I take the time to comment on your article, review, post, etc I'm not expecting that 6 months from now when you throw a tizzy that you'll use your admin powers to wash away those words.
I hope that MD will chill, take some time away, then come back and contribute once again when she feels like it because her contributions will be missed.
Absolutely, I don't agree with everybody and I sure as heck don't expect everybody to agree with me, but I would never fuck with the content on someone's website -- anybody's website -- for any reason.
I hope this MT feature is blocked or at least modified so that new stories can only be edited/deleted by the author within a certain period of time after publishing.
10 - Dawn
This whole thing is extremely disturbing to me on a couple of different levels.
I like Mac Diva and I think she is an interesting addition to Blogcritics. She writes well and added a considerable about of flavor to the site.
I like Al, and he does the exact same thing.
Al is not a racist, but he is an antagonist and a devil's advocate on everything.
As a person who was directly responsible for another person leaving this blog, I am deeply regretful for not choosing my words more wisely.
Andy's comments I did not feel were racist, but merely stated from his perspective.
Joe, well Joe is another story altogether and seems intent on being a troll no matter what the subject.
Quitting just implies that you were beat, and I can't imagine why Mac Diva would let ANYONE beat her.
11 - Dew
For once I will say Joe is more than correct, it's all my fault. Pinky and I have worked hard to cause discord to the masses and our plan is finally en route!!
12 - Joe
Hey, c'mon! Are you trying to imply something about me? I'm just challenging people's positions. I may get snarky or sarcastic but I don't think I'm heaping any personal attacks on people. Does that make me a troll? Should I go away, too?
13 - Joe
What's this "For once" business, Dew? I think what you meant to say was "As usual".
14 - Dew
Nope, 'As Usual' I got it right the first time. :-)
15 - The Theory
I agree with both Dawn and TDavid. And that's all I'm going to say on this subject.
16 - Tom Johnson
I read this and thought at first it had to be a joke. Mac Diva, guardian of rights for all, quitting just because people disagreed with her? Give me a break. If this is all it takes to make her take her ball and go home, well, jeez, that's pretty weak.
Maybe others have left Blogcritics with less brouhaha, but this I think is a pretty sad day for Blogcritics. People should leave because they've lost the desire to do this, not because they've been disagreed with. I hope others don't feel this way, I hope Mac Diva is overreacting. Most of all, I really hope we don't see others leaving because of crap like this. If you use this as a reason to leave, it's just an easy excuse.
17 - Al Barger
Oh, HELL no, Dew. You ain't getting credit for this. I am the one and true Professor Chaos! This is my handiwork. XOX.
I'm still mad, though, because I'm not getting near enough SYMPATHY. OK, Natalie feels sorry for me, so we're good between us. All the rest of you though, still owe me PITY for the horrible abuse I've suffered.
Craig, did you take it from this post that I was angry? "What we have here is failure to communicate." Actual anger would have been near the opposite from my intent. Perhaps my literary skills failed me here. Sorry.
Mac Diva didn't do anything to hurt me, and her problem ain't me to begin with. I wouldn't take something like this personal. Nor do I feel defensive in the least about my or our content. That'd be SILLY.
I don't really have any beef with her. She just happened to pick my doorstep as the place to throw a little crazy fit. She obviously wants attention. I'm simply trying to oblige a lady.
As I said at the top, I'm just having a bit of sport with ol' girl. Perhaps I might legitimately be accused of not taking the highest road in mocking her, but in fairness I am playing MUCH nicer than her.
18 - Dew
"Perhaps I might legitimately be accused of not taking the highest road in mocking her" Thus this is where the pity died...
19 - Joe
Quit yer' whining, Al. You and Andy get passes and I'm singled out as a dirty, nasty troll...again!
20 - andy
go back under your bridge and eat some goats Joe
21 - Joe
Et tu, Andrew? Maybe you're the one that's truly at fault here. If it weren't for you trying to inject your vaunted personal experiences into everything, we wouldn't be in this kerfluffle. And what? Who doesn't love mutton?
22 - andy
Technically it is my fault haha. The thread was harmless enough until I had to go share my stories of discrimination and rascalism while living in "da hood". After that, the bigot word came out of hiding and a full scale assault was launched on my good loving nature!
23 - Dawn
You know what? This is a bigger issue in some ways than it appears. And yep, I am going to tell you why.
There are probably few of us who have followed this thread who don't feel that Mac overreacted and sort of lost her way in this discussion. But what I think we are failing to see, but I am sure Dew or Natalie and even myself can see, is that she has a legitimate complaint with the world at large.
Racism is real, it exist and it is cruel and painful to deal with. But how would we know, we are white. We don't know what it means to be black AND female do we? We haven't the slightest clue what it would be like to merely try and exist in a world where a certain percentage of people assume something about you based on something you have NO CONTROL OVER - your color.
Dew, Mac and Natalie can dress appropriately, act appropriately, speak appropriately in a way that wouldn't never deceive who they are, but as soon as you open your eyes and see them, there they are: black.
I don't REALLY believe that anyone involved in the comments or posts is truly a hateful racist. But I think some of us don't take racism as seriously as someone who lives with it.
Empathy is a hard thing to have when you can't even imagine what it's like to be that person.
I can't imagine being black, but I am of minority status and I feel persecuted from time to time. When I am in the park alone, or driving at night by myself or in any vunerable setting - my gender comes to the forefront of my mind.
I am weaker physically than a vast majority of the population and I can be a victim just because of something I have NO CONTROL OVER.
Mac may be right, that bitch who wouldn't let her in the door may be have been a raging racist, or she could just be an asshole.
But Mac will never know, and in many cases lots of black folks just don't know what white people REALLY think.
I feel sorry for anyone who can't take a minute to think about that and say - hmmm... that must suck and I bet it might affect my outlook on life sometimes.
Just my two cents anyway.
24 - Natalie Davis
Um, OK.
Hey, look at it this way. MD could be doing Blogcritics a favor by trying to sever the tie between Amazon-dot-crap (I cringe every time I post because of those goddamned Amazon links -- I would never spend money there). In all seriousness, would it be possible to consider partnering instead with a reputable independent, such as Powell's Books?
Completely off the point, and I apologize for that. Pardon my digression, please, but think about it.
25 - andy
Dawn, you're right. I wasn't trying to downplay racism in any of my posts. I realize it's real(because, being the only white person in an enviroment can make you feel the same way sometimes), and I probably wasn't totally sympathetic to Mac Diva. It's hard for me to be sympathetic to someone who ALWAYS plays the race card the way she seemed to do. Either way, I hope that no one downplayed racism in that thread.