Black Farmer Calls Out Liberal Racism In Powerful Facebook Message

[Ms. Toad]

116. Nope.

I've spoken to too many African American friends who report similar experiences.

I suspect the stereotypes were intentionally used to say, "hey, liberals, yes - I mean you!"

A very liberal national group I'm a member of is currently engaging in an (internal) institutional racism evaluation because we (at the corporate level at least) blamed the messenger (or at least ignored the many messengers) for years, until they finally sent us a message we couldn't ignore (A very visible public event which virtually every African American member of our group chose to skip.).

Our treatment of them - our failure to listen to their repeated explanations of how our actions caused them pain - was at least as disruptive to their lives as the symbolic, but to my white eyes ostensibly bigger, external offenses.

I'm hearing from African American friends I've known for years, on a one-to-one basis, very similar expressions of what they need from me in the spaces where we are working side-by-side. A large part of what I'm hearing is, "Clean up your own house, first." - or at least "also."

From personal experience in spaces where I'm the minority that liberals theoretically welcome - including here on DU on LGBT matters - not having a home in which I can avoid being constantly smacked upside the head with bigotry means that even though the big bad world is objectively harsher, I have far less energy to fight the battles in the wider world beause my political home is not a safe space, where I can relax and focus on external matters. And - it is even worse when not only does bigotry intrude in places that purport to embrace me - but when the response when I point it out is that I'm constantly told (as this thread is telling African Americans) that I'm imagining my life experiences, I'm being overly sensitive, I'm focusing on the wrong things, etc.