Tommy Sotomayor's Haters Made Me A Fan!

Tommy Sotomayor is basically a “shock jock" YouTuber. He says pretty ridiculous things, mainly directed at black women, about the attitudes and behaviors of people he thinks are harmful to the black community. Based on this description alone, this makes him one of the most hated black social commentators on YouTube. Also, based on this description alone you miss out on the point of his commentary and the specific people, mainly black women, he is bashing. In essence, he is calling out destructive behavior in black culture and wants the empowerment of the black community and their families, albeit in a harsh, off putting, and easily seen as misogynistic way.

Tommy is the bane of black Social Justice Super Villains. The hate they have for him is so deep that the mere mention of his name gets this vierceal and emotional response that is intriguing to me. Even when it comes to someone as open minded as myself, the fact that publicly saying that I understand his point even though I don't agree with his methods, gets me looked at as his ally. This interested me even more, so I started watching his content. And I must say, it's making me a fan.

Not a fan in the sense that I think he is always right, good, and I blindly ignore what I know is too much. I’m a fan in the sense that it’s entertaining to see these so called “warriors" get an ass beating of a lifetime, for all to see on YouTube, over and over and over again.

Let me backup a second and explain how I came to this conclusion.  

About a week ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to this video that featured a former podcast colleague of ours in a debate with Tommy. When I first saw it was almost 3 hours long I was instantly disinterested, but was told to push through.

Our former colleague is one of those, “I want to be Shaun King and get attention" type of niggas, so I was interested in how he would fare against someone who he considers “toxic" towards his “black queens.”

The debate (if you could even call it that) wasn't even fair. Tommy logically destroyed that guy so bad that he made my made him agree with him multiple times on his main arguments, and even made him apologize multiple times for derailing the conversation, and paying more attention to the chat than the actual discussion.

This type of format caught my attention.  I had always heard Tommy was this monster, but from what I saw he had good points even though I didn't necessarily agree with all of them and he stayed logically consistent. Something that his debate opponents can not do almost immediately, everytime. I needed to see more, so I went over to his other channel and the shit show began!

His non-debate videos are mean, harsh, vulgar, and over the top. I personally don't agree with the method in which he goes about making his videos, but who am I to judge. No one watches my videos and mine are well thought out and mindful of people's sensibilities for the most part. I can most definitely see why people would have such a visceral and emotional reaction to them. You have to remember that I came into this situation backwards, so I already understood the purpose of his persona before I saw the persona. So, after subjecting myself to about 6 or 7 rants my question was: I get what you don't like, but what's the actual problem?

Every community has their bad eggs and every decent family tries to keep their families, especially the children, away from those bad eggs. Our moms wanted us inside by a certain time. Our dads didn't want us hanging around a certain boys, or girls, or age groups for that matter. They both didn't want us listening or watching certain media. These actions, and more, were done to make sure we didn't end up like those bad eggs. They exist though and most of us, some more than others, want it to be called out and held accountable. It's really one of the only reasons why we make sure we raise our children the best that we can in the first place.

Unfortunately, in every part of the world, when it comes to the view of black Americans, the glorification of our bad eggs seems to be what we are known for as a whole. Even when its perpetuated by blacks ourselves in order to be attractive to other people who value that sort of image, or actually are about that life for “survival,” it's a problem. Whether it's commercially perpetuated by others who copy that behavior by buying, supporting, or even selling the same type of media, or merchandise, it's a problem. The byproduct goes right back to the streets we live in, but most importantly our image as a community. The world already does it to us. Why do it to ourselves?

That's where statements like, “you're one of the good ones,” or “you speak so well,” come from. They don't usually live by black people, so they don't actually know who black people are. What they see is bullshit anyway, and not even nowhere near what we are really like (Buuuut it is kinda close. Maybe not Power and Empire close, but close enough to matter. Let's be real.). So, when it comes to how they maintain the country they are a majority in, created on purpose or not, that image is what is used to keep things unfair on that end of the equation.

The reality is, even though there are an overwhelming majority of blacks that don't behave that way, we know that the bullshit exists, and we ALL think, know, and believe that the rates at which it happens needs to drop. Now!

So why are you so upset that someone calls it out?

A common refrain I hear when I ask that question is, “It's not what you say, it's how you say it.”

Sure, how a message is conveyed will determine how a good portion of an audience will receive that message. However, as intelligent beings, shouldn't we use that intellect to sift through emotion, passion, and explicit language in order to try to understand what someone is saying, or where they are coming from?

One plus motherfucking one will always fucking equal goddamn two, no matter how the fuck I say it.

Which brings me back to Tommy.

Mr. Sotomayor is a genius! He literally capitalizes off of your emotions in order to get you so riled up that you end up proving his point for him. The point being, it doesn't matter how he says it. What he bashes is a problem and the rate at which it happens needs to go down. Now! Also, that black people and their communities can be better if we stopped engaging in attitudes and behaviors that are destroying ourselves. Fuck white supremacy! We do these things to OURSELVES! We all can agree with that? Right?

(Speaking to you black people) You know it, you know you don't like it, you know you raise your kids to stay away from it, so why the fuck are you so bothered and act like he hates all of us (but mainly black women) when you know good and goddamn well he's talking about the things that you already don't like? Because he says cuss words? Because you want to misrepresent his purpose because we are afraid as a community to hold black women accountable for their fuckery at times? Or, because he gets paid for it(there will be more on that topic later)? Either way, it doesn't matter. As long as it exists so will he.

Look, I don't agree with a lot that he says nor do I respect some of his stances. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to understand and agree with his point. You either for that matter! We are adults with high functioning brain capabilities. It does no good for you to think so emotionally and irrationally when that big of a clue is slapping you right in the face.

If you really want him to go away then use your time, resources, and platforms to do YOUR part to change these attitudes and behaviors the way YOU see fit. You know you want to see these changes too. Are you gonna do it or do you want white supremacy to?

That's what's really the genius of Tommy Sotomayor. His point and goal being accomplished will bankrupt him because he will lose the thing you hate him for. All we have to do is work together to make our communities better without crying about white people, and Tommy literally disappears.