While police work and media coverage continue around racist Amy Cooper's shocking attempt to weaponize racism and the police against innocent birder Christian Cooper, this matter has been used, poorly and unfairly, to draw attention to a real issue:

Racism among liberals.

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"Poorly" because the attempt was built on a significant fact error: Amy Cooper was not a donor to the pres campaigns of Pete Buttigieg, John Kerry and others. Outlets like The Independent and writers like Nylah Burton published the error, which was then circulated widely ...

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by Rose Twitter and other Pete haters always on the lookout for any straw they can grasp to label Pete as racist.

Reminded me very much of an LA Times story months ago that included a sharp criticism by Pete of Pres. Obama. But it wasn't true. The reporter retracted ...

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the quote, admitting a transcription error, but not before a half-dozen leading Pete haters demanded he exit the race. 1 or 2 apologized for jumping to a conclusion, but 1 (Jason Johnson) argued the error was "believable" due to Pete's alleged Poor History on Racial Issues.

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Fast-forward to today, and folks like @MaxBerger retracting their posts, but also deflecting when others call them out. Buttigieg Comms Director @LisSmith pointed out Berger's goof, but got attacked in the process.

To folks saying we shouldn't be exposing bullshit ...

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because Amy Cooper's not yet in jail and black men are still dangerously at risk in America, I disagree. First, we are all capable of holding two things in our heads simultaneously. Second, allowing a false association between Amy Cooper and Buttigieg where none exists...

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is being used to call into question Pete stans, as in, "Because Amy Cooper wrote him a check, many others exist on #TeamPete who would falsely call the cops on an AA man for supposedly threatening their lives."

If such people exist on TeamPete ...

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they have worked very successfully to remain invisible. I've never seen them.

Now don't get it twisted: Every white person in this country has racism in their hearts, and is either working to change that or not. That includes me. Raised in the South in a rural, white ...

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community, I have baggage that I have spent a lifetime consciously working through. And I don't pretend that it has all been wiped away, though I'm grateful to have made significant progress over the decades. Ridding ourselves of racism is work that is never done.

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But falsely claiming "Amy Cooper walks among you, and there must be something about Pete and his supporters that attracts such racists" does not help that work.

When Nylah Burton equates liberals with Trump supporters, it becomes a ridiculous funhouse-mirror argument ...

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of what Trump said of Charlottesville: "very good people on both sides."

Nope.

MAGA world embodies a naked racism that is in a brazen league of its own. White libs can & do err in matters of race, but come at these matters from a profoundly different place than Cooper.

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Like a great many others, I'd like to get back to solely focusing on the Cooper incident. But doing a hit on Pete and his supporters won't go unchallenged, nor should it.

Distorting truth to make a point, no matter how worthy or noble, is wrong and unacceptable.

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