Footnotes for

Don't Label Me

How I interpret my sources may not be how you do, so feel free to challenge my perspective — and to do so with grace. If you motivate me to rethink my view, and convince me to revise it, I’ll update the footnote in question and credit you. To start, click the icon called “Disagree?”

Chapter 58:
Lily in the Field: Letting Go

There are no footnotes for this chapter.

Chapter 59:
The Killer Cuddle

* “We’re perpetually evolving in ways that serve the purpose of species survival.”

Source: Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Chapter 60:
"Ballsy"?

* “The link led me to a video of three men in suits denouncing Muslim extremism.”

Source and note: Here’s the video. In breathless fashion, the email blared, “Watch this video before its [sic] deleted!” That was in April 2015. I write this footnote in February 2019 and the video remains posted.

* “At a liberal all-girls academy, I assigned student leaders to pick a controversial issue that deserved more honest conversation within the school’s walls.”

Note: I’m contractually obligated to withhold the name of the academy but I can confirm that it’s located in Toronto, Canada.

* “‘The problem with the world is not a shortage of brilliant theories or feel-good slogans…'”

Source: Payam Akhavan, 2017 CBC Massey Lectures #1: “In Search of a Better World,” CBC Radio Ideas, November 6, 2017, 10:53-11:10.

* “‘In responding to injustice with genuine empathy and meaningful engagement… we are nobody’s savior excerpt our own.'”

Source: Ibid., Lecture #5, November 10, 2017, 41:05-41:12

Chapter 61:
Offend Yourself

* “For years, my face had gone flush with shame about a calamitous public appearance I made.”

Note: “Obama’s America,” MSNBC, January 18, 2010.

* “‘I was embarrassed by [your] performance of overbearing arrogance… ‘”

Source: Personal letter from Howard McCurdy dated January 19, 2010.

* “Unless we transform trauma, we’ll transmit it…”

Source: Richard Rohr, “Transforming Our Pain,” Center for Action and Contemplation, February 26, 2016.

* “He’s supported by the emerging science of epigenetics.”

Source: Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).

* “‘… Aquinas conceives of courage as ‘a disposition of the soul to stand firm with what is in accord with reason amid sundry assaults of passion or the hardships of practice.'”

Source: St. Thomas Aquinas in T. McDermott, ed. Summa Theoligiae (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1989 / 1273), p. 422.

Chapter 62:
Coward for Congress

* “‘This Nehlen guy had posted cryptic messages like ‘Pass the bikes. Race far now’ — code for ‘Gas the kikes. Race war now.'”

Note: For wider context, read Kelly Weill, “YouTube won’t ban neo-Nazi group chanting ‘Gas the K**kes, Race War Now,” The Daily Beast, February 26, 2018.

* “‘Nehlen has a large, young following on social media, unlike several of the others.'”

Source: Text exchange with Adam on September 25, 2018.

* “Some of Nehlen’s fans bleated that that Adam’s questions were scaring possible followers away from the campaign.'”

Note: Later, several of Nehlen’s own supporters called out their candidate for making his neo-Nazi beliefs too obvious. This is one example from an alt-right message board:

“I will still be volunteering and attending any of his events, but I think he seriously fucked himself. He has absolutely no plausible deniability anymore like Trump has. This guy openly hates kikes and niggers making him David Duke-tier. But plot twist: Wisconsin voters don’t give a shit and vote for him anyway just for the lulz. I could see it happening, if any state were to do that it would definitely be Wisconsin. They are probably the most hateful blackpilled nihilist anti-nigger state in America.”

“Too bad, he could have been awesome. I think we’ve learned the lesson of going full redpill 1488 in public from now on.”

Going “full redpill 1488” means openly posting about your understanding of the true nature of the world, i.e. that Jews are controlling everything, etc. etc. Red pilling is a reference to The Matrix, a 1989 cult film in which the protagonist, Neo, takes the red pill and wakes up to the harsh reality of his enslaved state. And 1488 is a common neo-Nazi code phrase, as explained in this Wikipedia entry.

* “There’s a difference between saying  you’re ready for progress and actually acting on what you say.'”

Source: Phone conversation with Genesis on September 22, 2017.

* “According to Clay Routledge, a professor of psychology, ‘fear causes people to privilege psychological safety over liberty.'”

Source: Clay Routledge, “Why Are Millennials Wary of Freedom?The New York Times, October 14, 2017.

* “‘I wanted to show younger Southerners that in between elections, there’s still a lot more democracy to do.'”

Source: Phone conversation with Genesis on January 14, 2018.

 

Chapter 63:
Friends on Opposite Sides, Part 2

* “‘First of all,’ Genesis announced over pizza, ‘I just want to commend everybody for being here.'”

Note: Roundtable discussion in Biloxi, MS on September 24, 2017.

* “That afternoon, the plurals from both sides vetted a redesign of the state flag.”

Note: View the redesigned flag.

Chapter 64:
Moral Courage

* “‘I was transformed by it…'”

Source: Phone conversation with Genesis on January 14, 2018. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes attributed to Genesis in this chapter are taken from this conversation.

* “If the Other doesn’t feel heard, eventually he’ll feel humiliated.”

Source: Dominique Moïsi, The Geo-Politics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World (New York: Random House, 2010).

* “Trust emerged from being trustworthy.”

Source: David DeSteno, The Truth About Trust: How It Determines Success in Life, Love, Learning, and More (New York: Plume, 2015).

Chapter 65:
When Isn't Talk Cheap?

* “‘I’m going forward with it,’ he confirmed.”

Source: Roundtable discussion with Genesis on Louis, Biloxi, MI, on September 24, 2017.

* “Coates bemoans our shallow media culture, which pours cold water on wonder and, instead, ‘expects you to be an oracle.'”

Source: Ta-Nehisi Coates on “The Ezra Klein Show” podcast, October 9, 2017, 1:20:07-1:20:35.

* “Many are investing in artificial intelligence to shed human workers and hike profits.”

Note: Andrew Puzder, CEO of Carl’s Restaurants and Donald Trump’s first pick for secretary of labor, has praised robots because “they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.” See Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Male Trouble,” The New York Review of Books, October 11, 2018.