Parents upset 'Black Lives Matter' assembly excludes other races

[raging moderate]

115. If you had grown up in the US, you would understand the rage of Black people.

Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2015, 04:21 PM - Edit history (4)

I, too, dislike any racial discrimination. And I, too, long for a time when all racial discrimination can end. I, too, get my feelings hurt when I am excluded from meetings of Black people because of my white face. And, by the way, Black people, some of us white people really do want to attend these meetings to support you and learn more about you so we can support you better. There is a reason I deliberately capitalize the word Black but not the word white. There has been way too much verbal pretty-white-skin kissing in this country. It is time for some verbal pretty-Black-skin kissing.

I think, if a white person has grown up British or Canadian, you cannot possibly have any conception of the hellish horror that has been perpetrated against persons of color in these United States. There is a line on the map, latitude 15-40 (established in the eighteenth century by bellicose white US citizens screaming "15-40 or fight!&quot . North of that line, white people, led by a (for its time) enlightened government, struggled in a fatuous delusion of racial superiority to teach, guide, control, and rescue various Native Americans and African Americans, frequently making huge errors and occasionally committing huge crimes against them. I know Canada was better, because my own white US ancestors were grateful that there was such a refuge that they could help Native Americans and African Americans reach, with many fellow white people from whom they could derive reassurance that they were not the crazy ones for caring what happened to their fellow human beings.

Because, you see, south of that 15-40 line, life was a constant living horror for Native Americans and African Americans, as many white US citizens persisted in a vicious delusion that non-whites were not really human beings at all but rather animals, like chimps or gorillas, who had no rights at all. And no amount of reasoning or wheedling or bargaining would change their minds. I have read how reasonable white people tried to oppose these practices but were met by ridicule and threats (or, for those few who persisted, by beatings, house burnings, or even murder). Black people who came into white towns or neighborhoods were in physical danger, even if they had been hired by white people to do some of the dirty work the whites felt they themselves were too special to be stuck with. Now that Black people have gained a greater voice, we know it was even worse than the clueless white people knew (You guys, you have to realize, these other whites were not about to confide very much in the so called race traitors). Black people were constantly harassed, often terrorized, occasionally tortured for no reason, sometimes cheated out of wages with no recourse, denied food and water and medical care even in childhood. In a flood or a fire, sometimes they went unrescued.

Even fifty years ago, when I was a young girl living in Chicago, many whites expressed frequent unjustified contempt for all non-whites. And that is when things finally began to change. My mother said it was a huge relief to see the Black people finally getting some decent chances in life. She said that when she was a young girl, every Black person she saw looked as if he/she were carrying nine thousand pounds across the shoulders. She was so happy to see the change during the civil rights movement, when Black people finally walked, talked, dressed, and laughed with a new feeling of hope and happiness and freedom. So I have been happy in my life, to see them finally, finally, being given more of the rights that should have been theirs all along.

I just read a statistic that the police in Britain and Wales only shot about 3 - 4 people in the past few years. Do you understand the staggering statistics we have here in the US, where THOUSANDS of people have been shot by police in that period? And most of them Black. And usually by white police. When I was working in a Women's Shelter, we had a sign on the door asking that men please, please refrain from entering. Because some women had been so traumatized that they just COULD NOT stand to be around men. Especially not when they were opening up, expressing their damaged feelings and the terror they lived with. Good men got tears in their eyes and said "Of course." And that is what I am proud to say, when I hear that the Black people need me to stay out of a meeting where they hope to commiserate among their own kind. It is the white people, my own kind (well, mostly, I do have a tiny Native American ancestry) who have created this problem. And now it is so big that we can't solve it by pretending that we are in need of consideration. We have to let Black people do what they need to do. We have to offer support. We have to speak up to these other whites. And so on. Maybe after that, someday, we will at last be allowed into the meetings. And someday, we can all move together into a brighter future, leaving all this horror behind.

Until then, other white people, please join me in saying, "Of course." And in realizing that it is even a delusion to call ourselves white. Put your hand on a piece of paper, and realize that the palest "white" person is actually a kind of pale brown. Isn't it time we came off our pedestals and joined the rest of the human race?

Until then, I will continue to understand that sometimes I can help best by respectfully staying out of the caring and sharing meetings Black people feel they need.