When Feelings Don’t Care about Facts

From Jonah Goldberg at The National Review:

A few weeks ago, I attended a holiday party at a downtown Phoenix restaurant. I walked around to view the photographs on the wall. Then a photograph caught my attention. Friends said, “It’s coal miners at a pub after work.” It was a photograph of coal miners with blackened faces. I asked a Latina and white woman for their opinion. They said it looked like coal miners at a pub after work. Then they stepped back, frowned and said it’s men in blackface. I asked the waitress to speak with a manager. Instead, I spoke with a white restaurant owner. I explained to him why the photograph was offensive. Evidently, someone else had made a similar comment about the photograph before. 

Yet, the photograph remained on the wall. He said he would talk to the other owners and get back to me. While leaving, I asked him had he spoke with the other owners. He had not spoken with them, but mentioned Google said it’s coal miners after work. Thomas goes on to discuss DW Griffiths’ Birth of a Nation before finally getting to this stand-alone sentence that almost feels like an editor crammed it in there: 

Fact: The photograph shows coal miners’ faces covered in soot. The context of the photograph is not the issue. (Read more.)

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