This isn’t the first time you’ve said something regrettable on Twitter. When someone challenged what you said, here’s how you responded:
@blxckgirlbeauty the real problem of what? There’s bad people out there black and white or anything else. It’s a humanity problem, not race — Justin De Fratus (@JustinDeFratus) February 9, 2015
I don’t believe you are a bad person, Justin, but you do share this particular opinion with many bad people. Are you familiar with the Stormfront forums? Using the description from Wikipedia, Stormfront is “a white supremacist, neo-Nazi internet forum that was the internet’s first major racial hate site.” There (I won’t link to the site so as not to reward them with clickthroughs, but you’re welcome to do your own research), you’ll find many responses to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag that echo your sentiment — that all lives matter, that white people suffer just as black people do. If this isn’t a call to reexamine your opinion, I don’t know what is.
But let’s look into why #AllLivesMatter is an inappropriate response to #BlackLivesMatter. First of all, it’s a trend started by white people which appropriated a social media trend started by black people in response to the frequent murdering of black men and women by police officers. White people also started the short-lived hashtag #CopLivesMatter, which was simply disrespectful. “All lives matter” doesn’t need to be said in response to “black lives matter” because white lives matter implicitly and structurally. Here’s an example, via Vox: White and black people use drugs at nearly identical rates, yet black people are being punished for drug use at a much higher rate, 3.6 times. Black people serve longer sentences compared to white people for identical crimes. Black neighborhoods are disproportionately patrolled by police and SWAT teams. Black male teenagers are 21 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white male teenager. Black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students. The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was started because black lives don’t matter systemically at this point in time. That’s not an opinion; it’s a fact.
Saying #AllLivesMatter in response to #BlackLivesMatter is to ignore the unequal realities faced by white people and black people, and it is only said from a position of privilege. I understand you, Justin, likely have good intentions in saying “all lives matter”, but it is actively harmful to those who have been working tirelessly to help eradicate many of the societal ills that have placed anyone that isn’t a straight, white male into the gutter. Alicia Durfee used an analogy on Twitter which I think illustrates the problem quite well: responding to #BlackLivesMatter with #AllLivesMatter is like going to a funeral and shouting, “I, too, have felt loss!” She explains, it’s making someone else’s pain about you. [Update: As @twarner50 pointed out to me on Twitter, Arthur Chu originally came up with the analogy.]
By doing nothing (and saying “#AllLivesMatter in response to #BlackLivesMatter is to support the status quo), we — as straight, white men — are complicit in perpetuating a system which inflicts violence on those who didn’t have the luxury of being born white and male and straight and in an economically-stable area. This was written much more eloquently by someone else on Twitter, I recommend reading this Storify. This tweet in particular is key:
Erasing that reality does absolutely nothing to solve the problem; “all lives matter” is an attempt to divest yourself of responsibility
In lecturing, as I often do on Twitter, I may give off the appearance that I’ve never had bad opinions. The truth is, I look back on some of the opinions I had in my teens and in my early 20’s and cringe. I once thought stand-up comedians — like George Carlin and Bill Maher — were modern-day philosophers. I had no idea what rape culture was. I thought police officers were unequivocally positive forces in the universe. I had these opinions because my privilege as a straight, white man of moderate economic upbringing afforded me the opportunity. I wasn’t faced daily with the reality that many others face: the sexual harassment women receive simply for walking on a sidewalk; the undeserved racial profiling black people get for existing; the workplace discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. Furthermore, I went to a high school that had a 99 percent white student body and was friends with mostly white men. I was insulated from any reality that wasn’t similar to my own. Thankfully, the right people came into my life in recent years and showed me their perspectives. I had an open mind and I listened, and I’m so much better for it.
Justin, I imagine your story isn’t much different from mine. I truly believe that, if you’re willing, you can learn and grow from this, and I’d love to see it. We need more positive forces in sports (and sportswriting) willing to reevaluate themselves, admit when they’ve screwed up, apologize, and work towards making things right. As a professional baseball player on one of the most visible baseball teams, who appears on television regularly, and who has over 15,000 Twitter followers, you have a platform from which you can affect change. You can use your platform for good, or you can use it for bad. The choice is up to you.
An Open Letter to Justin De Fratus
Warning: This is heavily political, and is not meant to be a discussion, so I’ve turned comments off.
. . .
Update: Justin responded to what I wrote on Facebook.
. . .
Dear Justin De Fratus,
You said something on Twitter today that got a lot of us talking:
This isn’t the first time you’ve said something regrettable on Twitter. When someone challenged what you said, here’s how you responded:
I don’t believe you are a bad person, Justin, but you do share this particular opinion with many bad people. Are you familiar with the Stormfront forums? Using the description from Wikipedia, Stormfront is “a white supremacist, neo-Nazi internet forum that was the internet’s first major racial hate site.” There (I won’t link to the site so as not to reward them with clickthroughs, but you’re welcome to do your own research), you’ll find many responses to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag that echo your sentiment — that all lives matter, that white people suffer just as black people do. If this isn’t a call to reexamine your opinion, I don’t know what is.
But let’s look into why #AllLivesMatter is an inappropriate response to #BlackLivesMatter. First of all, it’s a trend started by white people which appropriated a social media trend started by black people in response to the frequent murdering of black men and women by police officers. White people also started the short-lived hashtag #CopLivesMatter, which was simply disrespectful. “All lives matter” doesn’t need to be said in response to “black lives matter” because white lives matter implicitly and structurally. Here’s an example, via Vox: White and black people use drugs at nearly identical rates, yet black people are being punished for drug use at a much higher rate, 3.6 times. Black people serve longer sentences compared to white people for identical crimes. Black neighborhoods are disproportionately patrolled by police and SWAT teams. Black male teenagers are 21 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white male teenager. Black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students. The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was started because black lives don’t matter systemically at this point in time. That’s not an opinion; it’s a fact.
Saying #AllLivesMatter in response to #BlackLivesMatter is to ignore the unequal realities faced by white people and black people, and it is only said from a position of privilege. I understand you, Justin, likely have good intentions in saying “all lives matter”, but it is actively harmful to those who have been working tirelessly to help eradicate many of the societal ills that have placed anyone that isn’t a straight, white male into the gutter. Alicia Durfee used an analogy on Twitter which I think illustrates the problem quite well: responding to #BlackLivesMatter with #AllLivesMatter is like going to a funeral and shouting, “I, too, have felt loss!” She explains, it’s making someone else’s pain about you. [Update: As @twarner50 pointed out to me on Twitter, Arthur Chu originally came up with the analogy.]
By doing nothing (and saying “#AllLivesMatter in response to #BlackLivesMatter is to support the status quo), we — as straight, white men — are complicit in perpetuating a system which inflicts violence on those who didn’t have the luxury of being born white and male and straight and in an economically-stable area. This was written much more eloquently by someone else on Twitter, I recommend reading this Storify. This tweet in particular is key:
In lecturing, as I often do on Twitter, I may give off the appearance that I’ve never had bad opinions. The truth is, I look back on some of the opinions I had in my teens and in my early 20’s and cringe. I once thought stand-up comedians — like George Carlin and Bill Maher — were modern-day philosophers. I had no idea what rape culture was. I thought police officers were unequivocally positive forces in the universe. I had these opinions because my privilege as a straight, white man of moderate economic upbringing afforded me the opportunity. I wasn’t faced daily with the reality that many others face: the sexual harassment women receive simply for walking on a sidewalk; the undeserved racial profiling black people get for existing; the workplace discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. Furthermore, I went to a high school that had a 99 percent white student body and was friends with mostly white men. I was insulated from any reality that wasn’t similar to my own. Thankfully, the right people came into my life in recent years and showed me their perspectives. I had an open mind and I listened, and I’m so much better for it.
Justin, I imagine your story isn’t much different from mine. I truly believe that, if you’re willing, you can learn and grow from this, and I’d love to see it. We need more positive forces in sports (and sportswriting) willing to reevaluate themselves, admit when they’ve screwed up, apologize, and work towards making things right. As a professional baseball player on one of the most visible baseball teams, who appears on television regularly, and who has over 15,000 Twitter followers, you have a platform from which you can affect change. You can use your platform for good, or you can use it for bad. The choice is up to you.
Sincerely,
Bill Baer
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