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[quote=Anonymous]It is hard to know what to do when you’re white but don’t like what American culture does to black people. On one hand, you have some black people saying, “Just shut up. It’s not about you and your ego.” And I understand that and feel it, so I don’t talk about it much because I feel like—what do I really have to say? This isn’t my experience.

But then if you don’t say anything or talk about it—and I think most white liberals are really afraid to honestly talk about race because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing—aren’t you just enabling things to stay as they are? Aren’t you just complicity accepting things?

For the people saying, “Call people out when they say racist things.” A lot of white liberals don’t hear things like that. I rarely do. Regardless of what people feel in their hearts, most of the people I know consider saying racist things unacceptable. It’s tacky and uneducated.” That doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes display racist behaviors that are almost subconscious...and also...some of the things are blended in together with class issues. It can be hard to differentiate between racism and classism. Not that either are good or that, in America, they aren’t connected.

Some of my best friends are black. Yeah. I said it. I know how it sounds. It’s true. But they are also wealthy and highly educated. They “act white.” And I don’t think I even have to explain what that means, even though I know how it sounds. They aren’t African-Americans. They are Caribbean. They don’t identify with African-American culture. But they have still faced racism. But they are also still privileged. I guess I point that out because I think a lot of white liberals think of black racism as affecting poor black people. It affects all black people to some degree, but it affects poor people more, like everything bad affects poor people more. They don’t have the resources to protect themselves from it as much.

Most of the racism I see is systemic, not things that I think any one person has much control over but that hopefully can change by electing fair leaders who want to make things better for everyone. 
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