Medium Thinks It’s Hateful to Point Out Bigotry Against White People

A little bit of background might be in order considering the title. Racism, and racial violence, are complex issues. And there's a lot of emotion involved. That emotion can sometimes take the form of articles, comments, and so on. Sometimes they can be quite extreme, and too extreme. Some people are indeed full of hate.

Sadly, if there some people who perceive themselves to be in one group, and yet others who perceive themselves to be in a different group, humans being social animals, will focus heavily on their perceived "own" and often fight with the perceived "other." With the invention of the concept of race came increased cooperation between people who believed themselves to be of the same race, but it also resulted in terrible aggression between perceived races, in many cases.

Things are better now, but they're far from great. There are plenty of races, of all sorts of varieties and reasons. There's racism against people of perceived color. There's racism against perceived whites. There's racism by each perceived group. I continue to use perceived because, as I've written elsewhere, there is no such thing as biological race, and stupid humans just continue to divide themselves in silly ways. Still, as I just described, it creates a lot of tension, so it is very real. And since it's a pain to write it each time, I'll just use the traditional folk labels for the rest of the article.

That's why I am very critical of racism, in all its forms, and yes, that includes targeted attacks against whites.

There is sometimes almost this view that racism is a natural thing for white people, and that it is in their blood. It isn't. That's because people aren't born white, or black, or any other race. It is something that is acquired, just like a family name.

Still, not everyone does see it that way. There are those who see racism as a crime which is uniquely and inherently white in nature. There are those who believe that white people are born guilty. Nonsense. Humans are humans are humans. It's really that simple. And when people think otherwise, it is itself a form of racism, and it's dangerous.

So, when I came across this piece on Medium today, I decided to comment. And yes, I know my comments can be quite harsh. I don't deny that this one was. Here is the comment in full, as well as part of the original article to which I was replying.

The article focused exclusively on violence against people of color, by whites, and was a targeted criticism of white people. Many likely agree with it. Regardless, to call such criticism, which includes actual citation of data contradicting the perception of the author, "hateful content" and remove it from the platform, is in actuality condoning a hateful and racist piece.

Of course, given the general attitude on the issue, I didn't think that Medium would remove their piece. And I didn't report it. I simply made a stern comment with citation and reference to more argument. However, I absolutely did not expect Medium to treat my comment as hateful content. It just shows that Medium will go out of its way to protect that kind of hateful rhetoric, even by threatening to silence those who oppose it.

Medium, as a platform, has every right to do so. It is their platform. They have editorial control. It is simply wrong to do it, and it is disgusting that they are so willing to engage in such biased attacks. We want to bridge the gap between people. We need to make people realize that race is not even skin deep. Race is simply a matter of perception, and nobody should be vilified based on a mere perception.