I just...

I appreciate keeping responsibility with government officials (yes they're awful) but I'd ask us all to consider that there is no need to infantilize grown adults. This is how you reinforce the myth of white innocence. https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1347241551412428807

Please note that when you paint white supremacists as lacking agency, you are excusing their choices to commit treason and violence.

This privilege -- assuming innocence -- is NEVER extended to people of color.

Every young Black man and Black woman is assumed to have full adult decision making capabilities even as teens. Trayvon was 17 and he was blamed for wearing a hoodie. Grown white men invade the US Capitol and other white men immediately think someone else was responsible.

Just...don't do this. You can blame government officials AND social media AND the people who attempted to commit treason. No one has to be absolved.

When we infantilize grown white men, we move away from holding them accountable. Yes these men were targeted with specific white supremacist disinformation. They then chose to commit violence. Both are true.

If you are not aware of white innocence, it's a concept worth researching. It's the assumption that white people are always trying to do the right thing and that everyone else is acting in malice. James Baldwin wrote about this beautifully. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind