General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: An Observation About White People and Wypipo [View all]Boomer
(4,168 posts)Your OP was such a wonderfully thoughtful commentary on the different perspectives and insecurities we bring to discussions about race.
When you mentioned the #notallwhitepeople reaction, I immediately thought of the #notallmen reaction that is interjected into conversations about violence against women. Instead of listening and learning from the experiences women are narrating, some men get unbelievably defensive about the phrase "men do this" and drown out the conversation with protests about being maligned by being lumped together with violent men. They are considerably more agitated by what they perceive as an insult than they are about the behavior under discussion.
So I try to draw on that experience when race is the issue instead of rape. Right, I'm a white person, but I'm not (necessarily) the white person that is under discussion. And if I shut up and listen, I'll better understand what black people are experiencing. And I might learn that there are times when, much to my chagrin, I really am "one of those white people." That's good to know, because I can't stop dodgy behavior if I'm not aware of it, right?
I think there are times when I've been guilty of the bending over backwards not to mention race, when it was a perfectly valid descriptor. The OP made me more aware of that anxiety and more cognizant that it is baseless and unnecessary in that context.