Progressive pundit Sally Kohn implied Wednesday that the response to the death of a gorilla at the Cincinnati zoo is evidence of racism, sparking a Twitter battle with a number of right-leaning commentators.
“Watching disproportionate attention and outrage over the last few days, it’s clear gorilla lives matter more than black lives. Very sad,” tweeted Kohn on Wednesday morning. The CNN commentator previously wrote an essay for the Washington Post in which she encouraged white people to combat racism by joining the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens employees killed a 17-year-old gorilla, named Harambe, after a 4-year-old child fell into the animal’s enclosure during Memorial Day weekend. Zoo director Thane Maynard responded on Monday to outcry from animal rights activists by saying there is “no doubt in my mind the child would not be here today” if they hadn’t made the decision.
In response to Kohn, National Review writer Charles C.W. Cooke pointed out that the gorilla “was shot to save a black life. The child was black. His life mattered more than the gorilla’s.”
The gorilla was shot to save a black life. The child was black. His life mattered more than the gorilla’s. https://t.co/KFboFFTt5o
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 1, 2016
Kohn clarified she was referring to the “outraged reaction,” before adding she didn’t recall seeing “white folks” and the media getting “so worked up” when 12-year-old Cincinnati boy Tamir Rice, also black, was shot by police.
Cooke responded by saying Kohn pushes the race button “for every single story” she sees, before adding that her claim “isn’t even true. The Tamir Rice story was much, much bigger than this. No protests for the gorilla.” He then retweeted a supporter, who noted there were “small protests, of sorts” upon the animal’s death.
After a Twitter user asked Cooke what would have happened if the gorilla was albino rather than black, he speculated “It would still have been shot to save a black child, but there’d have been a lot more Salon thinkpieces?”
Kohn also satirically tweeted that if black people dressed as animals, then people might be more outraged when they are murdered. She retweeted a supporter, who wrote “70 shootings in Chicago this holiday weekend but all we heard about was the Gorilla story. THAT’S @sallykohn point.”
Or gorillas. https://t.co/Fox7qkaHYX
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) June 1, 2016
Pro-life blogger Matt Walsh also criticized Kohn’s #BlackLivesMatter argument by saying “I don’t recall seeing you so worked up when thousands of black humans are exterminated in abortion clinics each year.”
Daily Wire editor-in-chief and National Review contributor Ben Shapiro added that “white lives and brown lives and Jewish lives” also matter, before concluding “this is a pagan worship of nature issue, not a race one.”
