"I Am Not Trayvon Martin" - powerful message from a 'middle class white girl'

[urgk]

41. Ah, I see your point about the "hit dog."

I'd completely misinterpreted the meaning. The phrase means that when she throws out her idea, only the whites-wearing-t-shirts-as-a-substitute-for-real-action will complain. Which is colorful, but a tad too simplistic to fully explain the situation. For instance, this is one dog, sitting at his keyboard, who would never buy a t-shirt to wear for a cause (it's just not my style), but who has been actively engaged in social justice for years.

Reiterating what I said in my last comment, without concrete evidence to the contrary, it's possible that any of the following may be true:

1. Those shallow whites-in-t-shirts are in such minority that the argument against them becomes a sort of straw man.
2. Those whites-in-t-shirts are having a positive effect, despite the shallowness of their actions.
3. Such a shallow sub-group may lose momentum and/or interest as a result of being chastised.
4. If 2 and 3 are true, there may be net loss of positive social action, rather than net gain. See: The Law of Unintended Consequences.

Which brings me around to this: "You have asked if her argument is useful, regardless of its validity That last phrase neatly dismisses her argument." I completely disagree with that premise. The 'regardless' in my comment means 'without any judgment one way or the other.' It's the exact opposite of dismissive. To read what I wrote as asking whether her argument is useful, given the fact that it is invalid is to distort the meaning unfairly.

To be clear, I'll re-state the question. "Without judging her argument to be valid or invalid, does it generate net positive social benefit?" It's not an easy question to answer, but it is an important one.