Dear #EvanKlinger, first, unfinished draft
An open letter to Evan, his parents, family, friends, colleagues, employer, and supporters
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Dearest Evan, Evan’s parents and/or guardians, any siblings Evan may have, Evan’s extended family, friends, colleagues, Apple, and his supporters,
Yesterday marked the 6 month anniversary of when our paths crossed, Evan — or rather, when you began inexplicably, rudely, and repeatedly calling me a bitch and honking your horn as I signaled to make a left with my 9-year-old daughter. Do you remember? Allow me to remind you:
You know what’s hilarious, Evan? I have been repeatedly accused of manufacturing this entire ordeal. I have been told I fabricated your actions, and it has been repeatedly mansplained and whitesplained that it was just a misunderstanding between the two of us. I don’t really know how I can misunderstand someone repeatedly calling me a bitch, however.
Let’s analyze this video, shall we, Evan & Co.?
I begin the video by asking you why. Why are you honking at me? Why are you calling me a bitch? If I had been accused of doing something I didn’t do, I would respond with, “What are you talking about? I didn’t do that.” However, Evan, you did not respond that way. In fact, starting at 0:08, you can be heard saying, “Yeah, you’re in the middle of the road.”
That’s right. I was in the middle of the road, Evan. Like I told you in the video, I was making a legal left. Allow me to cite California Vehicle Code § 21202:
(a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:
(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
(2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
(4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.
For those who are still doubtful, please see this handy illustration conveniently provided by the California Department of Motor Vehicles:
Do you see? There is an arrow directing the bicyclist to what appears to be an Iron Cross in the middle of the street. Does the illustration look familiar, Evan? It’s nearly identical to where my 9-year-old and I were waiting for oncoming traffic to pass in order to make our left.
So, to be clear: my maneuver was perfectly legal. Evan, you were in the wrong. Sunnyvale has very specific anti-harassment laws to protect bicyclists, and my daughter and I believe we witnessed you violate § 10.56.320 of Sunnyvale municipal code, specifically:
The primary purpose of this open letter is to address the number one question/accusation I received — why did I bring up race first? It’s a very loaded, complicated question, and I will try my best to answer it. In my attempt to answer it, I hope to provide you all with as thorough an introduction to racism as I can. No, it’s not as simple as “hating someone or thinking you are superior based on skin pigmentation”. That is what many of you (assuming you are American) were taught by (primarily white) educators, and while it’s not incorrect, it is egregiously incomplete, which makes it inaccurate and misleading. It’s merely the tip of the iceberg.
Before I begin addressing my most commonly asked question, I want to critically analyze the video, specifically the explanation that you, Evan, so generously provided on film.
Let’s recap and examine what happened in the first 30 seconds of the video. I asked you why you were calling me a bitch (0:01) and stated that you were in a two-ton vehicle while my daughter and I were on our bikes (0:05). You respond by saying that we were in the middle of the road (0:08). When I asserted that we were in the middle of the road making a left — a legal left — exactly where we were, you countered by saying, “Not back there you weren’t.” (0:20) When I clarify at 0:25, that “yes, right here I was [attempting to make a left]”, you proceed to inform me for the first time that I made an illegal right turn (0:28).
Which is it, Evan? Were you honking at me and calling me a bitch for being in the middle of the road as you described at 0:08 in the video? Or is it because I made an illegal right turn like you alleged at 0:28 conveniently after I asserted I had the legal right of way to make my left?
I stand by my statement that I made a legal right turn, and I would confidently bet a bitcoin or several Kekcoins that any footage of me at the intersection of Evelyn and Frances would show exactly what I remembered — that is, the light on Evelyn Ave was green and the path was clear as I signaled and turned right onto Frances St.
Let’s play the white man’s favorite, perennial pastime — devil’s advocate. Let’s pretend for a moment that you are 100% correct about my making an illegal right (you aren’t, but let’s pretend for a moment). I looked up the distance from where you claim I made an illegal right to where we had our exchange:
341 feet, Evan. A football field is 100 yards, which is 300 feet. You drove over the length of an entire football field to repeatedly honk at me and call me a bitch because I supposedly made an illegal right? In addition to working at Apple, do you moonlight as a public safety officer? If not, what emboldened you to transform into some sort of vigilante public safety officer?
Evan, I say this without any ill intent; it’s merely a factual statement. You felt emboldened to police me because you’re an entitled, white prick. Please allow me to explain.
Many of your supporters have claimed that I brought race into the exchange first. Many of your supporters have asked why I attributed your asshole behavior to your race. Many have asked for an explanation behind why my calling you an entitled white prick isn’t a racist comment. I’m grateful there are still people asking questions out there, and I am eager to answer.
First, we must establish a common ground: RACE. IS. NOT. ROOTED. IN. BIOLOGY.
B-b-but why do we look and act different? What about Tay-Sachs? I recommend reading those articles I linked to above before continuing on. I know it’s a lot of words, but no one said learning and growth would be easy. Mind you, I did not say race does not exist — merely that it is not rooted in biology.
Race does exist. It exists in the same way that money and cryptocurrency exist. These are all things that are human inventions. Race was invented as a way to classify people based on their outward appearance, primarily skin color. To quote Sut Jhally in his production about Stuart Hall and race (video here; for the hearing impaired, here is a transcript):
…things like skin color have been given many different meanings over the years. There is nothing solid or permanent to the meaning of race. It changes all the time. It shifts and slides. That’s why the title of this program is Race: The Floating Signifier. What racial difference signifies is never static or the same.
A signifier, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, refers to something that signals or indicates something that can be interpreted meaningfully. It can be a symbol, a word, or a gesture. The clothes we wear can be signifiers that may signify how wealthy we are or how wealthy we wish to be perceived. The way we speak can be signifiers. Race is referred to as a floating signifier because its meaning has never been fixed. (I know how Derrida would counter my statement. However, my intended audience for this article is the general public.)
What does it mean that race is not fixed? Well, it can mean a plethora of things. It means you and your grandparents probably have very different notions of race. It means that you and your children, if you choose to have them, will probably have different ideas about race. It means that your notions of race are not identical to your neighbors next door, the next state over, or an ocean away.
So race is not rooted in biology, but it was invented and real in the same way money and cryptocurrency are invented and real. Like money and cryptocurrency, our use of race as a system to classify and categorize humans has real world effects. Before I delve into racism as a system, it’s important to discuss what racism is not.
Noticing someone’s ethnicity is not racism. Differences exist. Our differences are inconsequential. What does matter, however, are the ideas and language that we use to make sense of those differences.
Racism can occur on an interpersonal level between two individuals, but that’s not my primary focus here. Systemic racism is the focus (not to be confused with systematic). Most primary educators in America only discuss individual racism, and when systemic racism is mentioned, it’s framed as an artifact of the past, an irrational, unreasonable attitude of a bygone era, which begat loathsome laws that have since been repealed. Water fountains and restrooms are no longer segregated by race. Schools have been integrated, right?
While it may appear that we are past the need to fight for justice, appearances may be deceiving, especially if you live around and only enjoy friendships with people who look and experience life like you. Despite what many people believe, there is still a wealth of evidence that reveals the perpetuation of inequality and injustice:
Imagine #TK evidence that shows inequality and injustice in (1) education, (2) justice system/sentencing/law-making, (3) medical, (4) banking/loans, and (5) employment.
This evidence is powerful because it goes beyond individual instances of racism. It goes beyond hurt feelings and wounded pride. The ramifications of this are economic, and as #TK (that one analysis about how long it would take for Black Americans to catch up with the white counterparts as a result of being disenfranchised for so long) shows, it can have — and has had — devastating effects that has reverberated through generations.
Most of the people whose decisions were studied, like many readers of this article, probably don’t see themselves as racist. In the most obvious ways, they are not. They probably aren’t members of the KKK, they haven’t witnessed any lynchings much less taken part in any, and they probably believe they judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Racism is ignorant and irrational, and they are educated, enlightened, and reasonable. They may even be dating or married to a person of color, as if that somehow inoculates anyone against racism. (Spoiler: it doesn’t.)
So why do people who staunchly denounce racism end up making decisions that result in the clear, seemingly methodical exclusion or substandard treatment of people of color? Unconscious bias is the answer. There may be ideas we have absorbed unconsciously through our primary caregivers, teachers, friends, society, and media at large that do not reflect beliefs that we would proudly, explicitly endorse. Too often, the result of being confronted with how our impact doesn’t align with our intentions is cognitive dissonance.
I have three daughters between the ages of 8 and 12. I’ve explained to them that cognitive dissonance is the discomfort you feel when you’ve been presented with reliable evidence that contradicts something you believe to be true. The way people deal with that information is by either ignoring it, rationalizing it, or outright denying it. I’ve told my kids that that is a losing game. You’re not safer, smarter, or better off in any way when you ignore information that helps you perceive the world more accurately. When the evidence you ignore is part of the solution to a problem, not only are you perpetuating the harm endured by those who are in dire need of a solution, you’re also putting yourself at a disadvantage by creating potential harm in the future for yourself.
So what is the result of a system that excludes segments of its population from leadership positions? What happens to a society that fails to accurately and comprehensively teach history from multiple, divergent lenses?
The result is a gradient of delusion and entitlement from the portion of the the population that is pedestalized and promoted. On one end, you have people like you, Evan, who seem to have such an unwavering, unwarranted confidence they are correct even when they aren’t, they feel empowered to hurl verbal abuse and to humiliate law-abiding mothers in front of their daughters because they believe their time is more valuable than the lives and safety of others or the law. On the other end, you have people like Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, Steve Jurvetson, Justin Caldbeck, Chris Sacca, and Dave McClure — the last two being the focus of a New York Times article about the culture of harassment in tech that was printed the very next day after our incident, Evan. People may think these things are unrelated, and while they are very different, they stem from the same rotten core.
I didn’t “bring up” race first. I merely described an inextricably omnipresent element that permeates American life. As presented by the evidence provided by the studies I described above, racism — whether or not you want to admit it, whether or not you are aware of it — still affects the lives of children, women, and men in the educational, medical, business, and juridical sectors of American society. Because of this, American law and society are like white-washed sepulchers (pun intended). It has yet to reckon with the ramifications of the stolen fruit of Black slave labor — and this reckoning won’t happen with people clamoring to Make America Great Again. Claiming that America was once great is to turn a blind eye to the harm done domestically and abroad.
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Evan, if what you are claiming is true — that I made an illegal right “back there” — did you repeatedly honk and call me a bitch
examine your words, actions, and behavior under the assumption that you are 100% correct about my making an illegal left turn, shall we? I’m still really unclear about why you were honking at me and calling me a bitch, but let’s assume
So at 0:24, when you stated, “Not right there you weren’t,” I countered with, “Yes, right here I was.” That’s when you change your story. You went from claiming I was attempting to make an illegal left turn to claiming I had made an illegal right turn. At 0:27, you went from talking about what I was doing “right here” to what I was doing “back there,” motioning behind you.
At 0:08, in response to my questions, you say, “Yeah, you’re in the middle of the road.” To which I responded, “Yeah, making a left — a legal left. It is against California code to harass bicyclists.”
You reply, “Were you making a left back there?” I informed you that I was trying to make a left “right here”, referring to the spot where I was. At 0:24, you assert, “Not right there you weren’t.” Right where, Evan?
And you’re correct, of course. I didn’t make a left “back there”. I had made a right. Here is the route I took from home:
You see, Evan, I made it a priority to learn California state and municipal codes regarding bicycles. As you can see from my helmeted kid in her neon visibility vest, safety is important to me; I’m notorious among my three kids for confiscating bikes, scooters, skateboards, and skates for failing to wear helmets. I also know most bike fatalities occur when bicyclists don’t obey traffic laws as they should, so I vigilantly model responsible, lawful biking for my kids.
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I did a FaceTime interview with ABC7, and they asked why I said I wanted your employer to see our exchange. I told them I thought it was important for tech companies to examine what it is about their corporate culture that creates or reinforces the kind of shameless entitlement that you exhibited.
