Hi! I loved your tiger beatdown post about racism in the netherlands (and by “loved” I mean “was enraged by the phenomenon described but thought the post itself made its point excellently). Though I’m not from that specific country I’m European and all too aware of how people react to questioning of institutionalised racism. I’m sorry to hear you’re getting so much shit for it.

Aww thank you for this. And I understand the apparent contradiction between saying we “like” something that is, in fact, terrible. It happens here on Tumblr all the time. I click the little heart on stuff that is objectively awful, and it doesn’t mean I “like” it more than it means I empathize with it.

And yes, the vile I’ve been getting over it has been quite mind blowing. Tiger Beatdown has a quite popular audience. We get hundreds, sometimes even thousands of comments per week. Still, my co-editors and myself have been quite baffled by the fact that this particular post seems to have attracted what are arguably the most hateful commenters ever. And the hatred also spilled into my Twitter, where I had to block racists that were sending me all kinds of awful rape-y threats and comments, calling names, etc. I suppose it goes to show what a taboo this subject is around these parts and the reluctance and stubbornness to not even consider the harm and pain for the Black arrested activists.

A good friend of mine suggested I write a round up with the worst of this commentary but I don’t think I can do that. Some of it has made me physically ill and the idea of revisiting it sounds less than appealing.

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