the problem with cait corrain's "I'm not racist" interview | goodreads review bombing, mental health
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- After being at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in the book world at the end of 2023, Cait left the public eye to seek rehabilitation, but she made a reappearance with an interview attempting to repair her image. I have a few thoughts, of course.
TIMESTAMPS
00:20 how we got here
01:19 audacious facts about the article
03:13 a summary of my last cait corrain video
04:03 Cait's weaponisation of mental health
05:50 goodreads list?
07:21 delulu, vanity or straight narcissism?
09:16 Cait's manipulative behaviour
10:37 Cait's priority - the world's perception
12:11 the depths of Cait's attacks
13:33 the lack of accountability continues
15:03 things that don't make sense 1
17:34 things that don't make sense 2
18:49 just so happen to be...
24:00 "to the authors I actually targeted..."
25:02 decided to come clean?
26:44 'do no harm' but you use harmful language
28:03 name dropping Matthew Perry
29:00 why I can't sympathise with Cait
30:23 a performance for the books
32:04 caught in a LIE
35:48 her intentions are clear
39.25 the article!
Support the Authors Affected
Bethany Baptiste - The Poisons We Drink
Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow
Kamilah Cole - So Let Them Burn
Molly X. Chang - To Gaze Upon Wicked gods
Akana Phenix - The Empire Wars
Danielle L. Jensen - A Fate Inked in Blood
Thea Guanxon - The Hurricane Wars
R.M. Virtues - Drag Me Up
Hana Lee - Road to Ruin
K.M. Enright - Mistress of Lies
Voyage of the Damned - Frances White
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I've had mental health issues for decades. Never in all those years did my mental health issues make me concoct elaborate racist plots to hurt other people and deny responsibility for it afterwards.
Lowkey my mental health issues helped me radicalize to being anti racist 💀
@@Lucifersfursona Yep. Can't abide injustice. Especially if it's also systemic
This is just infinitely frustrating because she herself actually acknowledged what she'd done was racist. In that fake chat with "Lilly", there's her saying "i review bombed BIPOC authors so you're gonna be thought as racist". SO SHE KNOWS.
THIS PART! She really thought we forgot
well to be fair, she only made those screenshots after she was caught doing this shit so did she know before she was caught that she would be viewed as racist? who knows but it reads more like a defense of her actions as not actually being racist because of the way it was worded.
I have autism (like Cait does) and her being on the spectrum isn't an excuse for her clearly racist behavior. Not only is using her neurodivergence as an excuse infantilizing and treating autistic people like we aren't able to tell right from wrong and be held accountable for our bigotry but it also harms autistic people of color who have to deal both with ableism and racism, and who are already erased and mistreated in the wider autistic community.
Also, Cait claiming that they went off the Goodreads list of upcoming debuts for reviewbombing is incredibly funny when you consider that one of the books targeted, Drag Me Up by R.M. Virtues, was 1) self-published by an indie author 2) released in 2021. She knew what she was doing.
Cait is whack. I’m autistic and have adhd and I agree with you. We are not stupid and impulsive like Cait so her using that as an excuse to be racist is wrong. Also I use goodreads and I rate the books I read through the star system and hardly write a review. I do with books I adore, but I really don’t care enough to type out how I felt about a book. Being recommended books with mc who are poc when goodreads only recommends what’s “popular” not based on the color of a character, is a piss poor excuses as well
It drives me nuts when other autistic people use "I can't understand social cues" as a way to justify being an absolute ass.
Like first of all, even when you do genuinely miss a social cue in real life, you should still apologize if that leads you to hurt someone.
Secondly, "don't be racist" is the most UNsubtle social rule I could possibly think of. If anything, if you really wanted to go off of stereotypes, you'd expect someone who takes rules very literally to be BETTER at following something as simple as "review bombing specifically authors of color is racist" - something that Cait themself is clearly aware of if we look at her imaginary friends' "confession"
Hear hear! From an AutDHD in Finland
This ^^^ it annoys me as an autistic person myself. Disability doesn’t disable your morals.
7:50 “she’s showing signs of narcissistic tendencies” is a way to acknowledge the parallels without diagnosing someone.
This is the phrase I was looking for!!
worth noting that you can be a narcissist and/or have narcissistic tendencies without having the personality disorder
Yeah, she just went away for two months to write her "The dog ate my homework"-story, and she really thought she would get away with it...
That's a great way to describe this 😭
I am shocked that this interviewer didnt call her out on it during the interview when she thripled down on her shit. If she has mental issues she should take care of it rather than bring harm towards people of color who also have their own issues and this cyberbullying and harassment from her could make their situation worse. This woman lacks empathy but wants our sympathy not knowing she should earn it by making herself better but she chooses to be two faced and terrible.
All of this!
As a neurodivergent person with a lot of trauma around mental health problems (including being institutionalized), who has experienced complete breakdowns, and who has hurt people as a result of these things, this interview INFURIATED me. Like you said it is SO manipulative. And she BARELY even acknowledges the thing we’re trying to talk about here because she’s SO busy making sure everyone knows she is struggling so hard and really the victim if you think about it. This is all about HERSELF. The things she says do not add up, she is not sorry, on the rare occasion she even bothers to say the word it’s so incredibly hollow, she is taking accountability for nothing because she is STILL blaming everything but her own choices and actions. I’m glad everyone sees all the way through her because this is disgusting.
Would you be comfortable describing how you hurt people during your blackouts so we can better understand how her claims are false? No pressure as it's of course personal and possibly painful to discuss.
@wormie1312 Thank you so much for explaining. I was guessing it must be something along those lines, but I didn't want to incorrectly assume.
@@Frogface91 what @wormie1312 is it exactly. It’s messier and usually involves lashing out at people who don’t deserve it. I also have been very cruel to myself, including behaviors that were harmful to me, and whether I mean it to or not that also hurts the people who care about me. Again, like they said, Cait was so methodical and deliberate in what she did, and it went on for such an extended period of time, that it does not in any way resemble the way people act as a result of a mental health crisis.
@wormie1312 thank you for sharing, this is it exactly and you took the words right out of my mouth! Solidarity, and I hope you’re doing well.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and giving even more clarity ❤️
I'm someone who has said and done stupid things because I was in a very poor mindset, but these were spur-of-the-moment things, which I then regretted deeply. What she did was meticulously planned. It's not the same thing. Lukewarm take: mental illness WILL make you do bad things sometimes. The problem is when you keep acting on said things, even knowing you could prevent it. That's when you can no longer excuse anything, because it's you doing that and not severe emotional distress. It's appalling that she'd use this as a shield not only because of her actions, but because there's thousands of people out there who genuinely need help, yet keep getting ignored because 'they're just looking for attention' or 'are just making excuses'. Her behavior directly contributes to more people in need getting ignored. As is, she's not sorry for what she did and she refuses to learn anything. There's no sympathy to be had for someone like that. Her actions harm others even to this day, and she doesn't even care.
Even your opener about this being published in Black History Month was chef's kiss, like I didn't even piece that part together because I'm used to the book and publishing world's disregard and disrespect to Black people. But absolutely, there's something to be said about choosing to give her a platform, now of all times, when the entire piece is white whining and denial.
I just knew there'd be loads of crap happening this month so as things pile up everywhere, I can't help but making the connection if there is one 🤣
She's doing what I fully expected. It's the reporter who I'm really disappointed in. Failing to challenge her assertions is terrible journalistic practice. He basically just acted as a PR outlet for her.
Some bits of the reporter's language shows they didn't believe what Cait was saying, but I still believe they should have never given Cait the platform at all to begin with
As Xiran Jay Zhao said in their tiktok on this (paraphrased), racism isn't a thing you can be or not be, it's not a box you check. It's actions. It's mindset. What Cait Corrain did is a racist action. This article is a racist article. To not be a racist, you have to examine what your actions are, what your mindset leads you to do and say, take a good hard look at your internal biases and actively work to fix them and it's *hard*. It's hard work. It's hard work that goes on for every single day of a person's life and doesn't stop. You can't be "not racist" by going into an interview and saying "Well I'm not racist". You have to make up for past racist actions by apologizing for them, properly, taking accountability for them, and working to correct them, and working on yourself to not do them, or similar racist actions, again.
She’s not actually saying that what she did was bad and apologizing here. The whole point here is to prove that she was never a bad person. Like it’s not about you right now, it’s about your actions and who they affected. It’s so frustrating!
there is nothing i love more than seeing the book community com together and not take a racists complete bullshit. She shouldve disappeared and kept her mouth shut honestly.
I love this community for exactly that 🥰
I call bovine excrement on "neurodivergense made me accidentally racist." I am multiply neurodivergent*, with heaps of childhood and youth trauma behind me, and none of that is an excuse to shrink from a) therapy / self-awareness or b) whittling away at the biases and casually *ist language that I grew up with as a white boomer.
In moments of clarity we must take stock and if we have lashed out during an episode of triggered rage, dissociation, or similar, apologies and making amends is a must. No excuses, no woe-is-me BS.
That interviewer really dropped the ball. Embarrassing.
* autistic & dyslexic ADHDer with complex PTSD
Its crazy she couldn't just admit, what she thought wasn't racist might be something deeper than she realized and shes analyzing that now... like, bare minimum could respect that.
The background of your video is incredible! I love how you arranged your books. It really tickles my brain. I also really appreciate your coverage of this topic. I am definitely subscribing.
I'm tired of people using mental health as excuse for poor behavior or straight up terrible things.
It was the same reporter who interviewed those Cait attacked?????? Girl... Why. That really is wild, I hadn't realised that yet.
I wouldn’t have minded her being interviewed. But for the journalist to not challenge any of her batshit comments is really disappointing.
@@haggisa at least it allowed Cait to REALLY really dig a hole for herself
I feel like the only consequences other than social, out of all this will be her book sales dropping hard because I don’t think she really will get any consequences other than that unless her publisher drops her too.☹️
Oh, she got dropped by everyone - her publisher, her agent, her illumicrate deal was terminated. It was one of the only times we saw real consequences. Which is why I say I believe she's only going on this apology/excuse tour to try and recover everything
She had 8 different accounts, had several more, she did it due to stress and pressure, because she felt threatened by them....she thought the debeut authors would do better than her. She reported them, blacklisted them to the publisher, destroyed books on purpose to help her get further....then afterwards, she blames it all on her meds mix up, and yet she been on the stuff for 2 years....oh....and apparently Star Wars was to blame too somehow.
Wow. Didn’t know having adhd and substance abuse issues makes people act racist. Interesting. *pretends to write this down*
The second she said "they were on the wrong list at the wrong time" I wanted to know what list. Because there isn't one. There is no list that had those exact people aside from the ones she made on her sock puppets. So I want to ask for the details she doesn't have in her convenient alternative version of events.
She claimed it was bc they were on debut lists or something
4:49 Ive NEVER been racist bc of my autism💀 that’s the most wild excuse to use, like that has no correlation
First of all… your hair looks amazing and you look so vibrant and pretty!
Secondly… oh boy 🤦🏼♀️
Thank you so much ❤️ and yeaaaa
"She's back, and...goodness me." This is such a serious topic but that really made me laugh. Thanks for your continued 'coverage' (is that the right word?) of this ongoing dumpster fire.
7:12, wow, this point blew my mind. This is such a clear issue with their defence, and I missed it completely.
Remember guys, accountability is like an out of control car. Depending on the conditions, if u over correct too much u can spin even more out of control, OR, u can flip that shit over and crash and die. So.
If you were really bad at social cues and have high social anxiety, you would not be doing an interview that you know thousands will read.
Girl your hair is absolutely gorgeous today
"I'm not racist, I'm ablist. There's a difference"🤓
What gets me about this is if she is that insecure she could have just made fake accounts and only rated her book highly. she didn't have to tank BIPOC books
The thing is I'm not sure that it even matters if she had any personal issues with the POC authors that she targeted. She was racist in her actions and she keeps trying to convince people that they should give a crap whether she's personally biased or not
The CaitOS😂 is that a pun?
Why does she keep lying??? Like was it not enough of a lesson last time?
From one autistic white woman to another (Cait), autism doesn’t hinder your ability to understand right from wrong. Sure it makes it difficult to understand certain social cues but social cues have nothing to do with morality. I’m drafting my first book and I would never in a billion years think about giving someone an unfair review. Am I sometimes too critical? Sure, but it comes from a place of realness and sincerity. And I try to be as constructive as possible. But purposely giving bad reviews without giving an author a fair shake is not only vile but also stupid. People should mind their business and just write.
Edit: I’m also sick to death of people using their disability as an excuse for being an ass. Your disability doesn’t disable your morals.
New subscriber, hey. Glad to have you in my youtube streams
Aw, thank you 😊
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