I watched The Amazing Atheist video on Steve Shives recently, as he promised me that it had me in it, as I’ve accused him of being racist based on his blanket insistence that black culture is a victim cult.

Most of the video concentrated on Shives’s blocking policy.

Now, someone’s blocking policy is their own deal. However, I do remember that, about a year ago, I was blocked by Greta Christina. If you type “blocked by Greta Christina” into Google, that blog post (from my old Barrierbreaker blog) is the first one that comes up.

Personally, I believe in discourse. I believe in open communication. I have not attempted to encourage anyone to flag TJ Kirk’s video. I am for free discourse. This is why I kept my comment thread open. You are free to comment if I agree or disagree. I responded to several of you and included you in conversation.

This is why I engaged in over five hours of interpersonal discussion with TJ Kirk himself.

This is why I did not ignore his objections and his fans’ objections. I defended my points against them.

I want to make one thing clear. I’m not a blogger who can be convinced by intimidation.

You can threaten to sue me. You can sic a million subscribers on me. You can try to bully me. You can try to take me to task in videos viewed by hundreds of thousands of fans. You can try your best to intimidate me because, as a small-time blogger, I dared to be honest with the way he saw your video.

But this, together, will not change my mind.

I will only be convinced by reason and evidence, not by TJ Kirk’s everyday claim of victimhood due to an attack by an atheist with a fraction of his subscribers. And I’m not convinced. I’ve said repeatedly why (see links at the end).

So I’ll say it again, clearly: TJ Kirk’s stance that black culture is a victim cult is racist.

I just got back from a rally in which we marched through streets screaming out to our fellow residents of Downtown Fort Worth that our concerns will be heard. And that does something to you. It gives you courage. The fear was high — I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so we were afraid of retaliation. Anyone could come over and shoot into us as we marched through. And yet we marched.

And afterwards, we talked. We talked about taking the fact that we have been treated as second class citizens seriously. We talked about how we cannot afford to stay silent. We talked about how we had to come together and protect the legitimacy of our real experiences. We talked about how to stay alive. We talked about how to vote. We talked, as a group, how to solve the problems facing us. Pastors said that their pulpits would be empty Sunday morning so that they could march. Over they said that they needed to plan because prayer was not enough. They needed to take action. They were doing the hard work of organizing. And this wasn’t the first time – this was a longtime system in place.

And they planned on doing it again the next morning. And again that night — in two events. And again the night after that.

And I saw, firsthand, that dismissing us as a “victim cult” was the racist attitude we were fighting so hard against. And when people are giving their lives because of this lie, it has to be fought.

As Obama stated:

So if you add it all up, the African-American and Hispanic population who make up only 30 percent of the general population make up more than half of the incarcerated population. Now, these are facts. And when incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our fellow citizenry that feels as if because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same. And that hurts. And that should trouble all of us. This is not just a black issue. It’s not just an Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about, all fair- minded people should be concerned. This isn’t a matter of us comparing the value of lives. This is recognizing that there’s a particular burden that is being placed on a group of our fellow citizens and we should care about that. And we can’t dismiss it. We can’t dismiss it. So let me just end by saying I actually genuinely, truly believe that the vast majority of American people see this as a problem that we should all care about. And I would just ask those who question the sincerity or the legitimacy of protests and vigils and expressions of outrage, who somehow label those expressions of outrage as quote- unquote, “political correctness,” I just ask folks to step back and think, what if this happened to somebody in your family? How would you feel? To be concerned about these issues is not political correctness. It’s just being American and wanting to live up to our best and highest ideals. And it’s to recognize the reality that we’ve got some tough history and we haven’t gotten through all of that history yet. And we don’t expect that in my lifetime, maybe not in my children’s lifetime, that all the vestiges of that past will have been cured, will have been solved, but we can do better.

I wonder what TJ Kirk thinks of Obama’s comments with his, “black culture is a victim culture” rhetoric. Ask him. Tell me what he tells you — if he’s up to the task of answering.

We do not fix the problem by ignoring it or dismissing it. We fix the problem by recognizing it and fighting to fix it.

Unlike TJ Kirk, I’m going to work to do better. Not by blocking. But by engaging in a public conversation. I’m not just walking away, because, as I learned at the march on city hall I just came from, I am depending on it, my city depends on it, my county, state, and country depend on it.

So far, he’s attacked Steve Shives. He attacked my original blog post, but he did not attack my follow up posts. He had time — he engaged in five hours of private conversation concerning them. He just…didn’t challenge me to discuss them in a public forum after the original blog post.

In all fairness, I don’t want to make TJ Kirk more money, directly; I don’t want to bring additional business to his channel, directly. Indirectly is fine — if you criticize me or something I wrote to get business for your channel, that’s one thing, but I don’t want to be directly employed as a moneymaker for him and the Drunken Peasants.

But I find it strange he hasn’t challenged me to debate, as I’ve set up terms before in comment sections.

I’d like to discuss this. Not the side issues. Not the red herrings. Not with his cronies. TJ Kirk and me, man-y-mano. On a Podcast. I propose a third party podcast that is not on either of our channels — Andrew Hall’s Naked Diner Podcast seems an alternative, and they have already offered. Let’s get together and discuss this. Straight up. No bullshit.

His side? I’d like him to defend his claim, often repeated, that his insisting repeatedly that “black culture is a victim cult” is not a racist statement.

He’s made it. He’s condemned me for saying it’s racist repeatedly. He should be able to defend it. And keep an eye on it. Notice if he tries to tweak it because he remotely thinks that’s indefensible, or tries to tweak it to say something like “some of black culture is a victim cult.” He made the statement and doubled down. He should be able to defend it thoroughly, as he made it and doubled down on it in the first couple videos.

I will defend the opposite — that his insistence that “black culture is a victim cult” is a racist statement, in that it is fundamental unhealthy to helping black individuals acquire the rights in society.

And I feel well-prepared for this.

I wrote this article that, originally, called him out on his racism.

He wrote a response video. I wrote this article in response to his response video.

He responded with a five hour conversation, and thousands of his fans responded. I responded to them here with satire. And then again here, with an analogy to atheism. And in regard to Philando Castile’s death, I showed how this attitude was harmful here.

So there’s plenty of material to back up my views. We’ve talked privately for five hours. Now we should talk publicly. Man to man. This has gone far enough. It ends here. I’m not running. I’m right fucking here.

On a third party podcast, like the Naked Diner.

I’m throwing down the gauntlet.

Next Friday or Saturday at 7pm.

I just want some back and forth, equal talking time, and for us to stick to the goddamn topic.

He’s defending his claim that “black culture is a victim cult” is not, in any way, a racist statement (keep an eye on if he adjusts it between now and then by softening it — saying he meant “some” or trying to soften it by talking about “to some degree” — that’s not what he said in his original post. It’s right there.).

I’m defending the claim that it is.

This is really what’s at the heart of this. Not the other drama.

Let’s fucking do this.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I have a Patreon, if you want to help me do what I do.