General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This Is the America White People Wished For. This Is the America White People Want [View all]Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)I know you are angry. I understand your anger. I'm pretty sure that if I were to trade places with you, I would be at least as angry. Coming from a life of privilege, I would go off the charts crazy if I had to be subjected to the treatment that is the daily life of most black people in America.
And you are completely correct that racism is out of hand in America, that it always has been, and that most white people refuse to acknowledge it. It is the original sin of a country build on slavery.
I won't add my "old white man's" story. My personal history, which includes being arrested three time before the age of 20 in civil rights marches, doesn't matter and is beyond the point you are trying to make.
But that story, multiplied by thousands, does bear on the detrimental effect your (however justified) screed against "American White People" has on combatting racism. While many of us old white people take the vilification you hurl with equanimity, there are those with my kind of story who take your hurt personally - as a direct accusation. It makes a divide where there should not be.
Those who are the correct and justified targets of your rage are not bothered at all by your accusations. They relish the title you give them and laugh at your consternation.
Try to understand how such a divisive post only helps perpetuate the very condition you (and I) detest.
As I said. You rage is justified. Your anger is understandable. But expressing it so broadly is not helpful or productive. Lashing out impotently is self-satisfying, but it does not further the cause.