Stuff Matt Yglesias Says

Via @DrewMTips, I've been trying to not mention the M-word, but this is...

Well, it's something.

Remember Sister Soulja? And how Bill Clinton took issue with her, and the press went ga-ga, talking about his "Sister Soulja Moment," his guts in taking on the baser parts of his base?

Here's Matt Yglesias' #SmartTake on that:

@mattyglesias

11m

People forget, but Sister Souljah was speaking out about the problem of black-on-black crime.

Now you all probably did forget that.

There's a reason you forgot that.

Because it didn't happen.

Here's what she actually said to provoke Bill Clinton into calling her out:

"Of black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"

Citation here.

Incidentally, she said this not in the context of condemning black-on-black crime, but in an interview in which she expressed her support for the 1992 Rodney King rioters, and just generally supporting black-on-white crime.

Her attitude was that if a black person is going to kill someone anyway, it might as well be a white person.

Per Wikipedia:

In a Washington Post interview published on May 13, 1992, the hip-hop MC, author, and political activist Sister Souljah was quoted as saying, (in response to the question regarding black-on-white violence in the 1992 Los Angeles riots):

Question: "Even the people themselves who were perpetrating that violence, did they think that was wise? Was that a wise reasoned action?"

Souljah: "Yeah, it was wise. I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?... White people, this government and that mayor were well aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, are above and beyond dying, when they would kill their own kind?"

She wasn't calling for a reduction in violence; she was just calling for it to be redirected entirely towards whites.

I don't understand this whole Matt Yglesias Situation.

I do not understand why people pay him cash money to make a fool of himself week-in, week-out.

Sometimes daily, as John Ekdahl noted earlier.

posted by Ace at 02:17 PM

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