One great (?) thing about being a journalist is that you get to do a lot of your learning in public.

I made a series of mistakes last week on this website and I want to share what I did, why it was wrong, and how I ended up harming people that I respect the most.

When I posted a tweet that included my opinion, I tagged people who I had learned a lot from on that topic, thinking that I was amplifying their expertise.

This is the wrong thing to do. Not only is it wrong to assume they'd agree with me, I did it in a way that was tokenizing.

This is, I've come to realize, a pattern of mine, as I'm someone who for some reason has a blue check, a relatively large platform, and benefits from white privilege.

Just because you want to make a point doesn't make it okay to draw people into your arguments or discussions.

What ended up happening was in my own eagerness to assert my position publicly, and align it with voices I admire, I created a toxic environment.

And I did it in a way that was completely oblivious to the fact that the voices I admire don't or can't engage the same way I do.