July 4, 2013

American Prospect reporter Jamelle Bouie received a toxic email from a typical Tea Party conservative reacting to an article Bouie wrote about the fatigue associated with systemic racism. Bouie's troll cited statistics about how the welfare state had forced Jamelle's "people" into more illegitimate births and posed false comparisons to prove white supremacy. Among other things, the writer asked this:

You are surprised that GOP conservatives don't turn toward your viewpoint, yet can you say your own people are not neck deep in family and academic failure over the past few decades?

Bouie decided to go beyond a bit of Twitter mockery and try to have a real conversation with the guy. He got his telephone number from the email address on the email, and called him. What ensued was about 30 minutes of the guy talking at him instead of with him, but it seems to have been enlightening.

In this segment, he discusses the episode with Chris Hayes. I'm not sure anything especially productive came out of the conversation, but it is an interesting look at a different way of dealing with Internet trolls, at least.

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