It seems that many conservatives are outraged over the fact that Harvard University has rescinded its invitation to Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shooting survivor & “conservative activist” Kyle Kashuv. If you don’t know the story, here’s the gist: Kyle Kashuv was a junior when the Parkland shooting happened. In the wake of the massacre at his school, while most of his classmates called for gun reform, Kashuv made headlines by posting videos on Twitter of himself shooting an AR-15. His pro-gun stance made him the darling of Fox”News”, conservative/white supremacist voices like Charlie Kirk & Ben Shapiro, and even earned him a meeting with the Racist-In-Chief, Donald Trump. He became the high school outreach director for the far-right political group “Turning Point USA” — a group focused on fanning the flame of right-wing ideology on college campuses, and a group which has had a history of problems (SERIOUSLY) with its leadership saying and doing very racist things… Including TPUSA’s Chief Creative Officer kicking off a TPUSA event by saying, “My people. My people… Oh my God, I’ve never seen so many white people in one room; this is incredible!” Here’s the video:

It was after Kashuv’s appointment to the TPUSA position that his history of racist statements was brought to national attention. Some of Kashuv’s classmates threatened to expose the racist statements he made if he didn’t resign, and he abruptly left TPUSA to “focus his attention on school safety legislation” (the kind that doesn’t include gun control, to be clear). Classmates recalled him using the N-word regularly while he was in school. In one online exchange, he gave a girl a “rating” of 7 out of 10, and mentioned that she “goes for n*****jocks.”  He also bragged about being good at spelling the N-word because “practice makes perfect.” He made the racist statements when he was a junior — a couple months before the shooting occurred — and he’s a senior now. As these things do, Kashuv’s history of racist comments became public (as well as anti-semitic comments calling for people to “kill all the fucking Jews.” Which is odd, as Kyle Kashuv’s — whose middle name I don’t know, but I would not be surprised at all to find out was Kevin — family is from Israel). Harvard decided they didn’t want that kind of garbage at the most prestigious college in the world. Harvard has a policy where they can withdraw an invitation to attend “if you engage or have engaged in behavior that brings into question your honesty, maturity, or moral character” (emphasis mine). This isn’t the first time they have done something like this —  Two years ago, they also rescinded offers from 10 incoming freshmen for sharing racist and sexually offensive memes on a Facebook page.

Harvard’s decision to rescind Kashuv’s admission has been met with much conservative outrage… From partisan hacks like Ben Shapiro to people like who sometimes dabble in rational thought like David Brooks. People are chalking up his racist comments as a “youthful mistake,” and they’re calling for forgiveness and grace. “A small mistake shouldn’t define the rest of your life!” cry the same people who defend the police shooting of Tamir Rice… A 12 year old boy… Who was playing in a park with a toy gun… In an open carry state… And was shot dead before the police car stopped rolling.

And now that former republican lawmaker David Jolly has said that Kashuv’s statements remind him of a school shooter, people are even MORE upset. He said that when he looks at Kashuv’s statements,  he sees the sort of “social media postings we see of a shooter, and we ask, ‘Where were the signs?’” But just look at the post to which he is referring…

So you might be wondering why this post is titled “How To Tell If You’re Racist.” I’d say that the vast majority of the people who are upset at what Harvard did would SWEAR UP AND DOWN that they are “not racist.” They’ll tell you about “black friends.” They’ll point you toward “Diamond & Silk” or Candice Owens (“Racist White America’s Black Friend”) or other black voices (whom white supremacists love to quote) who insist that racism doesn’t exist. But the truth is that racism DOES exist… And it’s the biggest reason why people are so upset about Kyle Kashuv not getting to go to Harvard. If you’re upset, it’s not because a college admissions office was “unfair” in judging a kid by what he did when he was 16… As these two perfect tweets point out, that is LITERALLY how university admissions works:

And that SHOULD settle it, right? I mean, how DARE Harvard not accept me just because I got a bunch of B’s and C’s while I was in high school!?! PEOPLE CHANGE!!! Listen — If you are upset about Kyle not getting into Harvard, it’s because you don’t think that using the N-word is that big of a deal. Period. So now, in the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy’s famous “You Might Be A Redneck” bit, here are some ways to know if you *MIGHT* be totally racist:

• If you’re outraged about Harvard rescinding their invitation to a rich white kid who repeatedly used the N-word online and in real life, but you’re not outraged that the United States is running concentration camps for immigrants at the border, you MIGHT be totally racist…
• If you’re suddenly concerned with the injustice of how we treat our youth, but you felt like Trayvon Martin’s murder was probably “justified” after you saw the picture of him flipping off the camera, or you heard that he once got in trouble for having weed, you MIGHT be totally racist…
• If you think that gay couples who are refused service at cake stores should just “find another bakery,” but you are super pissed about a white kid being told to find another college after bragging about being good at writing the N-word, you MIGHT be totally racist…
• If you think that the racist practices and people Harvard tolerated 200 years ago are equivalent to Kyle Kashuv using the N-word 20 months ago, you MIGHT be totally racist…
• If you’re more outraged over a white kid being kept out of Harvard than you are about brown kids being separated from their parents and kept in LITERAL CAGES, you MIGHT be totally racist…
• If you’re fine with a 16 year old black kid getting the consequence of life in prison for a horrible decision he made, but you’re very angry about a 16 year old white kid getting the consequence of not getting to go to Harvard after making the horrible decision to post racist, misogynist, & anti-semitic comments, you MIGHT be totally racist…

You know what? There’s really no “MIGHT” about it… You’re totally racist. Sorry. And I’m also sorry that the ones I came up with weren’t nearly as funny as Jeff Foxworthy’s… Though, to be fair, Foxworthy’s jokes really aren’t that funny either. Come to think of it, most of the ones I came up with would probably work with the “might be a redneck” line too. Ahh well, moving on…

Here’s an easy way to tell if you’re racist: If you’re more upset about Kyle not getting to go to Harvard than you were about Trayvon not getting to go to college EVER, I’ve got some bad news for you…

One more thing to think about: This is not just about what is “fair” to Kyle Kashuv… It’s also about what is fair to the black student who worked her ass off her whole life to get into Harvard, and then finds herself having to sit next to some douchebag who belittled a girl for being into “N*****jocks” while he was a junior in high school, the whole world found out about it, and then the college you worked so hard for STILL let him in. How would admitting him be fair to HER?

I truly hope Kyle Kashuv learns from this and grows into a fantastic human being. I do. I hope he dedicates his life to making this right. I hope he moves beyond an apology, and learns firsthand about ATONEMENT. Life is a learning experience, and we all make mistakes… Some of those mistakes have consequences, and the one this kid made resulted in him not being able to go to Harvard University. Don’t worry Kyle: There are other colleges out there… I’m certain that Liberty University will still take you.

I took a couple weeks off because sometimes it all feels so huge and depressing and overwhelming. But I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to those of you who help support me. It really helps. If you’d like to support this blog, the best way is to BECOME A PATRON. If you’d like to leave a tip for a post you really love, you can DO THAT ON PAYPAL. Otherwise, you can follow me on TWITTER, or on FACEBOOK, or you can subscribe to this blog up near the top of this page. Thanks again for reading!