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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

God bless you!  I am PP you are responding to.  I'm so depressed to my core this last week.  Reading mean anonymous posts on the Internet is probably not helping me.  Thank you thank you for being a ray of light.  Talk to other white people.  Like everyone else on earth, it's easier to listen when the person talking to you reminds you of yourself.[/quote]

I'm glad you felt better reading my post, but I don't deserve your thanks. I am a coward. I'm not alone in this, but there it is. I support the BLM movement. I support civil rights. I am vehemently against guns. But I have never attended a rally or protest and it's unlikely I ever will. To be honest, I'm afraid to. I'm afraid of being violently arrested or shot or a bomb going off because some asshole of whatever race or religion has a grievance or mental health issues, plus a weapon, and sees a bunch of easy targets. I might have gone to a rally in my young student days, but now I'm 35 with a husband and a young child and parents to support and I can't see myself doing it.

I'm doubly ashamed because I am Jewish and I think, well, what would I have done if I were a gentile during WWII? Would I have put my life on the line to save Jews or would I have looked the other way so as not to jeopardize my life or my family's life? What would I have done if I had been an adult during the 60s in this country? And I can't say with any assurance that I would have done anything.

I will vote, I will petition, I will give money to causes I support ... but I'm not out there on the front lines. And I know I have the luxury of choosing not to be. [/quote]

Thank you anyway. Money and voting are a lot. Protests are just one facet. Your thoughts remind me of what Hannah Arendt meant when she wrote about the banality of evil. Don't misunderstand me. You are not evil. But people think evil things persist because of evil people. They don't. Being silent and self-interested is most of it. I also wonder what I would have done as a German in the Nazi era. I am not confident I would have stood up for Jews. Let's not minimize how complex and difficult the struggle against entrenched power dynamics is. I consider you an ally.[/quote]

I completely agree, and I know I am not evil. But I am aware of the concept of the banality of evil and of complicity by failure to object. I think when people think of evil or racism they think of Hitler or George Wallace. But really a lot of it is unconscious or ignorance or just standing by silently or averting one's gaze.

I consider myself an ally too. :) I just feel very discouraged, which I'm sure pales beside how you feel. I thought your earlier remark about talking to other whites was interesting because race issues are not something that really come up in my conversation with people of any race. I wouldn't be averse to talking about such issues but I don't bring them up, any more than I talk about religion or politics. I saw a huge Trump sign the other day in my neighborhood (a liberal MD neighborhood). I can't stand Trump or the things he says but it would never occur to me to say anything to the homeowner about it. If I saw a Confederate flag I would be disgusted but again, I wouldn't say anything unless the person tried to put it on my yard or give it to me. Do you discuss race issues a lot with non-African Americans? Do you initiate those conversations or do people bring it up to you?[/quote]

Well, like you, I'm 35 with a kid so I'm not hanging around in coffee shops much or talking with random people.  I sometimes bring it up in the vein of -- crazy week of news, huh?  But I only really "hang out" on with other moms with kids and it's a little awkward to have super serious conversations and then go need to stop a kid from eating something weird.  People always talk about going home to Thanksgiving and dealing with a racist uncle or some such thing so maybe that's when people generally have these types of conversations?  I don't know.  I post on Facebook.  But perhaps my 500 or so friends are really liberal because I rarely see a racist post I want to make an issue of.  One "friend" did post something supportive of Trump's Muslim ban and I, gently, gave her a piece of my mind.[/quote]

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