Posted on 12/29/2020 7:14:15 AM PST by Kaslin
At 15, Mimi Groves said the n-word word in an attempt to be 'cool,' and the video sat for years. It wasn't until it was weaponized against her that anyone cared at all.
A high school senior is proud of having ruined a classmate’s life by posting a three-second video clip the classmate had long since forgotten about. In fact, he thinks of it as a learning moment, and he’s happy about it. So is The New York Times.
In an article that went viral over the weekend, Times writer Dan Levin walked readers through the triumphant tale of Jimmy Galligan, who last year in history class clicked on a message that featured a video of a “white classmate looking into the camera and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.” He saved the video. He bided his time.
The student went to his school. They’d even been friendly over the years. Yet this video, four years old at the time he first viewed it, struck a nerve. Perhaps deciding that revenge is a dish best served cold, he held onto it and waited for his moment.
That moment came after the classmate, Mimi Groves, got into college with a spot on the cheer team at the University of Tennessee. When Groves posted her support for Black Lives Matter on social media after her admission, and after George Floyd’s death in May, she was confronted with a barrage of responses from people claiming her advocacy was hypocrisy.
Levin wrote that one message, from someone Groves “said she did not know,” read: “You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word.” Groves was horrified. Galligan was pleased. This was the kind of lesson he was looking to teach. In fact, when Levin dug into why Galligan didn’t say something to the school administration, or to Groves, it turned out that Galligan had, in the past, attempted to remedy things in that way and got no results of the kind he was apparently looking for.
Once Groves was schooled in the error of her ways through public revenge-taking, the results Galligan longed for came quickly. Groves was publicly shamed, her admission to her dream school rescinded, and her plans for the future sacked.
The University of Tennessee posted their own tirade against Groves, saying they had “received several reports of racist remarks and actions on social media by past, present, and future members of our community.” They specified that “We have a responsibility to support our black students and create a place where all Vols feel safe.”
They tweeted “following a racist video and photo surfacing on social media, Athletics made the decision not to allow a prospective student to join the Spirit Program. She will not be attending the university this fall.”
Levin writes Galligan now says he had “no regrets,” quoting Galligan as saying, “If I never posted that video, nothing would have ever happened.” Galligan wants to remember this moment of destruction, telling Levin “I’m going to remind myself, you started something. You taught someone a lesson.”
In that, Levin let Galligan have the last word. For Galligan, Levin, and The New York Times, this outcome was a boon. A privileged white girl learned her lesson and lost her entitlement. A community realized how truly racist they are, and a boy on the brink of adulthood was able to serve lessons in social justice that will last him a lifetime.
There are more than just a few problems with this whole story, however. As Jesse Singal notes:
The kid who held on to the recording for years, also a teen when all this went down, will now be subjected to a nationwide outrage wave himself. This culture of surveillance and public humiliation is just exhausting and endless.
“What is telling,” Singal writes, “is how people on one side can’t imagine how a teen who wasn’t deep-down evil could possibly use a racial slur at 15, and people on the other can’t imagine how a teen who wasn’t deep-down evil could be so calculating and vindictive with the recording.”
While he’s not wrong, much of the issue also has to do with the decision by Levin and the New York Times to make this international news and essentially cheer Galligan on. Undoubtedly, Galligan will see this article as a vote of approval from grown-ups in positions of power who are proud of his efforts to behave as though he were one of the errant teens in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”
Writing for Reason, Robby Soave comments that “Like most people with a vaguely functioning moral compass,” he was “horrified” by the story, writing he doesn’t “blame the teen who publicized the video,” but “the NYT editors who lionized him for it.” He continues:
There’s nothing unusual about teenagers being extremely cruel to each other … Young people say and do awful things to each other. The point of school is to socialize them out of this, to teach better behavior, to allow them to fail, to learn, to grow. That’s why it’s wrong to expect perfect behavior from a 15-year-old. No one can pass this standard.
As he points out, the real problem is that the kind of behavior Galligan behaved in was praised by the paper of record. “The country’s most important newspaper decided that normal teen misbehavior deserved name-and-shame coverage,” says Soave, “The Times made Galligan a hero for this. That’s on them.”
Honestly, it is somewhat absurd that a girl’s future was stolen from her because a vindictive classmate planned her downfall and that this fellow classmate has been praised for it in the national press. Katie Herzog, Singal’s co-host on their “Blocked and Reported” podcast, disagrees:
This is a rare case in which I disagree with Robby on a culture war issue. You may not like the piece’s framing (I don’t), but I would still write this story. The subjects clearly agreed to be a part of it and it illustrates a very real phenomenon and one worth highlighting.
Herzog goes on to say, “I’m not sure how this is any different from the multitude of other cancelation stories other than the characters’ ages.”In many ways, it isn’t, and yes, it’s a story worth writing. But the glaring truth remains: after years of cancellations, online mobbings, and shamings, we’ve learned absolutely nothing.
Groves was not outing herself as a Nazi. The word she uttered, so incredibly off-limits for white folks, so incredibly acceptable for black folks, is pervasive in pop culture. Groves said the word in an attempt to be “cool,” and the video sat. Indeed, it was meaningless for four years. It wasn’t until it was weaponized against her that anyone cared at all.
Boy,this socialist media stuff is way outta hand.
Democrats: The Central Park Five only held down a woman as she was brutally raped. They’re effectively innocent as they were only 15 at the time.
Also Democrats: She said a racial slur when she was 15. She has to be punished till she learns how terrible it is to do that.
I only skimmed the article,,....is Jimmy Galligan black, white or just a jilted suitor who thought the girl was cute, asked her out, was turned down and decided to ruin her life?
i think the galligan punk is the one who needs to be taught a lesson.
Never mind, he’s black.
Is it a pronunciation problem? Did she say N...a? or N...r?
The N-word can be used as a racist comment or a social no-derogatory comment depending on context and intent.....
No different than the F-bomb......
The hypersensitivity of the corporations and institutions is beyond ridiculous...
Once the corporations suffer enough legal losses they will reform but not until. Institutions need to be stripped of protections and those with the fiduciary responsibility need to be sued directly as well.
When the well-to-do University or Corporate President is spending their own money and not that of the institution, change will occur.....
He’s pictured hanging out with his Trump lovin’ white girl friends decked out in USA garb, so I’m guessing he wanted some tail and they just wanted to be friends.
I have 2 words for that rag and the Dems: “Sheets” Byrd.
That cur of a classmate will now grow up (if not murdered by gansta’s) believing in his righteousness.
AND he will enter the world believing he is right no matter what he does, no matter what charges he levels. . .until the world smacks him upside the head to remind him he is NOT the center of the universe. Expect fake “hate crimes” in his future when his star fades. . .
He is evil.
No mention of the guys race, that I recall, so I believe he is black. That makes things so much worse for society and America.
Why’d he do it? Sudden attack of social justice or she turned him down for a date? Either is likely.
“At 15, Mimi Groves said the n-word word in an attempt to be ‘cool’...
Is it a pronunciation problem? Did she say N...a? or N...r?”
She was a fan of rap as a teenager.
She was singing along with a rap song.
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.....” comes to mind. What a cruel, vindictive thing to do. This is so wrong.
We have yet to grasp just how evil Democrats have become.
‘Cancel Culture’ works both ways.........................
Meanwhile the klansman Governor is still in office in Virginia and the Democrats Party is A-OK with blackface and klansmen costumes.
He is a scumbag. She is a scumbag. My GAF meter doesn’t seem to be working for either of them.
Frankly I fail to see how the utterance of a word can ruin someone’s life unless they let it. Never apologize to a woketard. No good can come of it.
Recall that the media shielded dead Robert Byrd (D-KKK)’s legacy this year.
When it was erroneously stated that Robert Byrd was a Grand Wizard of the Klan rather than merely a Cyclops or Kleagle, it was considered “an untruth”. Pretty bad legacy when a recruiter for the KKK (how many hate crimes did those he recruited go on to commit?) is considered nothing to get upset about.
And BJ Clinton said that Byrd was only a Klansman because back in those days you HAD to belong to the Klan to get elected. Doesn’t speak well of ANY Democrats. And it is untrue.
In the other thread, the guy comes across as flamingly gay
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3919609/posts
He’s also half black, half white (Let’s call them halflings from now on), and she was a BLM supporter.
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