Summary

The article discusses the racist implications of demanding data from Black individuals when they share their personal experiences with racism, emphasizing that personal accounts are valid evidence of systemic issues.

Abstract

The author argues that requiring Black people to provide data to substantiate their experiences with racism is inherently racist, drawing a parallel to how other subjective experiences are accepted without question. The piece highlights the dismissive attitude often encountered by Black writers on Medium, who, despite providing personal anecdotes and historical context, face skepticism from some readers, particularly White men, who demand empirical data. The author points out the hypocrisy in accepting certain narratives without data while challenging the credibility of Black voices. The article underscores that the history of slavery, along with individual stories like those of Malinche and Dido Belle, serve as evidence of racial injustices. It criticizes the expectation for Black individuals to prove their experiences, suggesting that this is a tactic to undermine their stories and maintain a status quo of denial. The author concludes by asserting the validity of personal narratives and the importance of believing Black voices without requiring empirical validation.

Opinions

Asking for data to validate personal experiences of Black individuals is racist and dismissive of their lived realities.
The demand for data from Black people is

Black Life-If It Happened Then It’s a Fact

Asking for a Black person to provide data to validate their experiences is downright racist.

We don’t need data when someone claims to be a man in a woman’s body, or that yoga can transform lives, or that a unicorn is a real thing.

So, why when a Black person writes about their experiences on Medium, a White person, usually a man, has to come outta nowhere demanding data? Don’t ya’ll have some dangerous sports activities to go do? Please be my guest, and go.

From my girl GFC: Grown Folk Conversations, who not only wrote about her experience in Black and White romantic relationships, she also added plenty of links and examples. Yet, here comes Michael Hurst, running after my comment, which validated her premise, with, personal experiences doesn’t mean that all White people are like that. Well, no one said that in the first place. Adding, “It can’t be true because there’s no data on it.” Well, there isn’t much data on how many jerks there are on Medium, but this doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

https://historycollection.com/16-facts-in-the-life-of-the-almost-forgotten-life-of-one-of-englands-first-black-aristocrats-dido-elizabeth-belle/3/

Here’s the data, 500 years of slavery. Malinche, Dido, Clotel, George Floyd, and Michael Brown. These atrocities are just snapshots, that prove that there is an insidious serpent lurking in between many relations, personal or otherwise when race is involved. It is not all Dairy Queen and chocolate sprinkles as one would imagine. This reminds me of my friend Cherry whose grandfather married the White plantation owner’s daughter. The dude was a gangster and so is Cherry. Still, her grandmother told her own children as well as Cherry, that ‘racism will always exist.’

This also happened when Herbert Dyer, Jr. wrote about the murders of Black men in Chicago, and again some accused him of padding the numbers of who died at the hands of the cops and demanding data.

Why? Medium is not a sociological journal.

It’s a social media platform where people write what is important to them. Sometimes they used data, sometimes not. And don’t get me started on those cut-and-paste pieces lifted straight off of other websites posing as original works. Hey, I was a college professor, I can see them a mile away. So, these trolls are just sitting under a proverbial bridge waiting for someone to attack. I guess we need some Trollicide up in here and fast.

To put it bluntly, this is not the place. Asking for data or proof, or accusing someone of faulty logic in their writing is simply another way of saying they must be lying. If that is what you think, well, be brave enough to call a spade a spade.

Why Do They Do It?

I can only theorize into the motivations of these data seekers, and here is my theory.

Because they feel guilty, they don’t want to be accused or blamed, they don’t want to be lumped in with the trash, because they think they’re better than those guys. Allahu a’llam.

Dear Trolls and Friends:

If it’s not you, then don’t worry about it, just move on with your life. Tired of Black people whining, but just think of the alternative.

White supremacy will ensure that there won’t be because there is no way in this land there ever with be a Black Kyle Rittenhouse who would live to tell his story in court. Let alone, run across state lines packing and shooting up and killing people, then show up in court, with an “I’m sorry,” and get off with a sob story.

Whatever the case may be, these guys are getting on my “one good nerve,” to quote Ruby Dee. And I am oh, so, tired of them.

If something happens to me, or ten others, and we tell our stories, just because no one from the Gallup poll came and asked what happened doesn’t mean we are lying. If it happened, then, it’s a fact.

I am sure there is data somewhere, but it’s not me just to satisfy your need to act superior.

My final word is this:

Those who want to act like they know everything and that, I am the dumb darkie; please stay out of my way. Do not ask me for data, because, if you are not offering grants for me to actually do an ethnographical study, I suggest you satisfy your own curiosity and buy a Jstor subscription.

It is not my job to run around proving that my comments/essays/articles are valid. If you don’t believe me, then do your own research and write a rebuttal. That is how discourse works. The ball is in your court.

P.S,

Do not post your essay on my comment feed, If you do, I will block you. 🚩