No, I'm Not Part of the Problem

Every now and then, I'll run across a story that prompts me to check the hosted domain to ensure that I am not reading a piece of cleverly disguised satire. Clorox was the focus of such a story this week after using Twitter to horrify the fragile sensibilities of a collection of Twitter users standing at the ready to reply their indignance in 140 characters or less at the first sign of something racisty.

Clorox clearly did not suggest that the new racially diverse emojis needed some good bleachin' or anything that the perpetually-offended might morph the tweet's message into, fitting their narrowly-focused and simplistic view of the world.

What's even more ridiculous than these stories are the comments from readers. The drill goes something like this: A person reads the story and understandably finds it ridiculous. The person leaves a comment expressing his disbelief at how the world can be so obtuse.

In steps the moral high-grounder.

"Just because you can't understand why something isn't offensive to people of color makes you part of the problem..."

No it doesn't dude. No, it really doesn't. Just because someone pretends to be offended doesn't make something offensive, and trying to force me into trying to understand something that is manufactured isn't solving anything any more than my vocalizing the ridiculousness of the notion is a part of any problem.