What's Wrong With White People in America?

[ProudLib72]

108. Your original question referred to all white people

Some posters have taken offense. I freely admit I still have some learning to do. How the hell can I know what it's like to be black in America when I am white? I still don't. There is simply no way I can. Not fully anyway.

Here is an example. I had a student several years ago who was African American. After she had my class for the semester she began working in the tutoring center where I also work. We became closer friends. At some point I just forgot about her being "black." She was just my buddy. About two years ago (when MAGAt racism was really beginning to take off) she told me that she and her mother had taken a walk around their neighborhood, and some kid had yelled "F you, fat n---." I was really pissed off. She told me she was going to start walking with a baseball bat. The next week I asked her if she had seen the kid again. She told me to drop it; she didn't want to discuss it.

So what did I learn from this? I took it more personally than she did because I felt alienated from her in that moment. I was a white dude listening to what some other white person said to her. When she told me she didn't want to discuss it further, I realized how much I was overcompensating for something perpetrated by another of "my race." So there is guilt associated with racism. I think that guilt can quickly turn allies into enemies. That guilt is not your problem. No way! It's just that we white people don't like being reminded of our racist tendencies. As a whole, we have a lot of growing up to do.