Whatever point people may have had about Gayle's interview, it was erased once I saw the Snoop video and watched the pile on it triggered.

The response is abusive and a toxic stew of the vilest misogyny, complete with the threat of violence. It's breathtakingly disrespectful and a display of character that's so revealing that I had to actively talk myself out of moving into a space where I was beginning to feel an irreparable rift between myself and Black men. I saw very few Black men taking issue with the response.

To perform such a hateful level of misogyny, let alone *in public*--is beyond the pale. It's meant to shame and belittle Gayle in ways that are unwarranted. It's unforgivable. The subtext of all the comments weaponize, encourage, and justify a strain of virulent, dangerous, misogyny.

Gayle is 65, I believe. I'd rather be in my grave than to disrespect someone in my parents' age group like that. The levels of disrespect for elders also blows. My. Mind.

There's a way to express strong agreement and then there's too far. This response is beyond too far.

Were some of the men chiming in also #GirlDads?

I want to believe that Kobe wouldn't want his fans or friends disrespecting, threatening, harassing or abusing Gayle in this manner even if he was upset by the line of questioning. I want to believe that. I don't know Kobe. But I want to believe that.

It's revolting and discouraging that some Black men are lining up, yet again, to defend a Black man with a complicated history that's related to sexual assault-- and that the route to get there is to blame, shame, and attack Black women.

I think the conversation about Gayle or Oprah's support or not of Black men accussed of sexual assault could've been had. That's one thing. But what I will NOT do is abuse Gayle in order to do it.

This type of thing shakes a person's sense of safety. Gayle should take the threats seriously. Learning self-defense, if she doesn't already, may help to channel some of her feelings...but it may also keep her safe. People are rash and the emotion of the situation encourages irrationality, even the irrationality of violence. I'm so so sorry that this hateful space is where some people are, when celebrating the lives of the souls we've lost should be the point. Lisa Leslie got that.