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Monday's Most Active Threads

by Jeff Steele last modified Feb 07, 2023 11:26 AM

The topics with the most engagement yesterday included a mosquito video, a class mom, fewer spots in private schools, and Walmart.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "The 'White People Are Mosquitoes' Video in FCPS" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. The right-wing has perfected the art of manufactured outrage. This is particularly true around school issues, this thread being one example. The original poster launches things with the falsehood that, in the video, "white people are mosquitos". This is not only falsely stated in her subject line, but repeated in the body of her post. The video neither says nor implies that the mosquitos represent white people. The video twice says that microaggressions are mosquito bites, but the mosquitos themselves are not identified beyond merely being mosquitos. Since anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, is capable of committing a microagression, there is no basis for the original poster's allegation. Second, the original poster says that the video suggests that minorities "reasonably could engage in violence against white people". This is also misleading. To repeat, the mosquitos don't represent "white people". Moreover, to interpret the part of the video in which the narrator says that microaggressions can be so annoying that it makes "you want to go ballistic" as condoning violence requires a certain amount of willful ignorance. In reality, the video is a creative attempt to communicate the harm potentially caused by microaggressions. Whether the reaction to the video by the original poster is an authentic fear that white people are the real victims of efforts to combat racism or just a manufactured reaction based on political partisanship is not clear. But one thing that is clear is that the performative outrage around school issues mostly gets oxygen due to social media platforms including, in its limited role, DCUM. I am not at all comfortable with our forums being used in such a manner. As this thread ultimately demonstrates, the original poster's attempt to portray white people as victims is immediately exploited as a justification for racism by white people. Which, if not the actual goal of the thread, was an easily foreseeable outcome.

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