“Actually, they were! Hope this helps!”

Take a look at the below comment by “maddieelam”: 

“Actually, they were! Hope this helps!”

Excuse me?

Maddie appears to be stating that, in fact, Benny Johnson’s ancestors were evil. 

What an abhorrent, despicable, and brainless thing to write. 

How dare someone state that another person’s ancestors, in their entirety, were evil?

It is unclear exactly what Benny’s ancestors did wrong to merit such a harsh condemnation. It’s possible that an individual ancestor, or even several individual ancestors, did something sufficiently bad to merit the designation of evil. But for each and every one of Benny’s ancestors to have been evil is statistically extremely unlikely, to say the least, and is not something that Maddie could possibly have evidence to prove. Therefore, Maddie is falsely, and without justification, condemning people as evil.

To criticize, let alone condemn as evil, a person or group without justification is cruel and mean-spirited. And to state that a person’s ancestors, in their entirety, were evil, is an act of intolerance and bigotry.

Does Maddie think that the ancestors mentioned in the post are evil because they came from Europe? Because they had light skin? Because they lived in a different time period than she does, and therefore dressed differently, talked differently, and thought differently than her? Regardless of the exact reasoning, Maddie is cruelly condemning people as evil for the “crime” of being different from her. This is the epitome of intolerance and bigotry. 

Maddie’s intolerance and bigotry become even worse if one interprets Benny’s post as being about the ancestors of Americans in general, rather than just his own personal ancestors. If one interprets the post this way, then Maddie is stating not only that all of Benny’s ancestors were evil, but that all Americans of the past were evil. The bigotry and intolerance inherent in such a statement are appalling. 

“Actually, they were! Hope this helps!”

Um, no. Actually, they weren’t. And you are a bigot and a bully for making this racist comment. Hope this helps, Maddie!