This week, an odd tweet appeared in my mentions from verified Twitter users — users prominent enough to be granted a blue check mark by Twitter itself. This one came courtesy of a rapper named Talib Kweli Greene. I’ll admit I’d never heard of Greene until he suddenly appeared in my mentions calling me a “racist ass.” It turns out Greene is a rapper with well over 1 million Twitter followers and a long history of “social activism.”
A quick search of Greene’s Twitter feed showed a wide variety of instances of the rapper calling people “white boy” and “coon.” He says that this does not make him racist, of course — only the term “black boy” would be racist, since Greene maintains that white people cannot truly be victimized by racism. When I pointed out that seeming incongruity, Greene replied: “What’s the problem white boy? You think ‘white boy’ is racist? Wow. You’re dumber than I thought.” He then dared me to call him “black boy,” which, of course, I would never do, since that would be racist.
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