The black hole

For most of us, Youtube is known as the black hole of the internet, where time (and most of our data) goes to die.
But once in a while something interactive comes out of it and you get some insight into what the world outside of your head is thinking.
One of the most relatable, and sometimes frustrating, corners of this hole is the comments section.
Here, people are free to praise or criticize however much they want, sometimes even start a little fight. Personally, I get into defence mode. It usually comes around the time when a young woman’s temper is known to be its shortest. I weed through all the happy chappy comments and I find the trolls. On a fine afternoon, after watching a very insightful video, I go through my regular routine of reading through some of the comments. One comment that I find to be particularly interesting has been written by a gentleman who judges what someone else has said. This someone else has even garnished the supposed disagreeable comment with horrible spelling and bad grammar. The fine young lad then decides it is okay to publicly condemn an entire community of people based on what the person said.
That is when my boxing shorts come on and my gloves come off.

Round one. “You make your race sound stupid,” he says. “I wish we could blacklist you from the black community.”
And even though there are some comments disagreeing with this, they are not in my opinion, substantial.
I am also surprised and saddened to see that there are some people who agree. First of all, let me not waste any time saying that that is a racist thing to say.
Why does an entire race sound stupid to you? If one person ‘ruins’ a whole race of people for you it’s because you’ve already decided that black people are stupid. I don’t care what colour you are or how many black friends you have. That’s racist ! Round two.
This person continues to say that “just because you’re black doesn’t mean you have to sound ghetto. That’s why we should blacklist her. But that’s probably not going to happen as long as we keep defending [stupid people].” No-one ‘has’ to sound ghetto. No-one goes to the international school of ghetto to learn how to talk ghetto.
People just speak the way they speak, so that was a stupid thing to say. If a person does ‘sound ghetto’, does that automatically make them stupid? Sorry. You’ll need a little more than that.
Round three. “If she were white I would have said the same thing.”
Just because you would say the same thing to a white person, doesn’t mean that statement is any less racist. Some people forget that they have probably done something in their lives that make several people think they are stupid.
Does that mean they should be blacklisted from the community? Where would everybody go? Is there a plane or an island somewhere big enough for everybody’s personal blacklistees and their babies? Ah. That’s expensive. Round four.
Gentleman cannot believe that I am defending Ms Bad Grammar. “We can’t progress if we let [stupid people] pass through. People take us less seriously because of that. And yes, many people do look at one person’s actions and think the whole community acts like that.” But it’s not even about grammar and what Ms Bad Grammar said. It’s about what gentleman says.
Now this is for those who agree with him; all of those on whom the shoe fits (which includes you, person of colour).
If it is true that we should be able to judge an entire people, or humanity, based on one person’s actions, then why are all you Judge Judies worried? You are the (self-appointed) models of society.
People should see you and see your entire group or community as perfection; blemish free. Cough. Double standard.
Not all people belonging to a community should be thrown into a pit because of what some people do.
If you want to negate the efforts of all individuals in a community based off of what you saw one or several people do, that is your own racist problem. So you be the change, Judge Judy.