Amala Ekpunobi

People can say offensive things and not be racist.

That's like an element of this.

I think like the phrase racist carries so much weight and so much power that now it's like an indelible thing that you carry with you upon like one statement or one clip or whatever.

I can't tell you how many times I've been called a racist over things that I've said that involve like black stereotypes or black people or the black community or black culture.

And it's just like, okay.

I don't know.

Based on the sum of its parts, he does not come off as a racist individual to me.

Now, I can take everything in the sum of its parts, take watermelon felon and go, OK, well, this makes him a racist.

And now there's no way out of that situation.

out of that group that I've created and out of that box that I've created, or I can listen to him in context and then make a judgment as to whether or not I think he's racist.

And I don't think he's racist.

I don't think this is a guy that hates black people.

I don't think this is a guy that if he saw a black person out in public would not be totally kind and conscientious towards that individual.

I don't think this is a person who wouldn't have a black person in his home or in his family or in his life.

So all of that being said,

Can watermelon fail and cancel out all of those like things that I've inferred?

No, it doesn't.

It's just a comment.

If we did that with everything that people said all the time, everybody would be labeled something.

Right.