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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What a stupid thread to bump now.[/quote]
Why? There’s never a bad time to expose racism and white supremacy. [/quote]

Citation please [/quote]
 :roll: You think racism stops when a pandemic happens?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210355/Horrifying-video-shows-black-man-DRAGGED-Philadelphia-bus-cops-not-wearing-mask.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/asia/china-guangzhou-african-blacklash-hnk-intl/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/09/masks-racial-profiling-walmart-coronavirus/

But of course, must be nice to have white privileged and never worry about this. 
[/quote]

Is there any way I could help you get past this? I’m asking as an individual white person. Is there anything I can do for you that would mitigate or diminish the anger you carry at the injustices you perceive? Is there anything I could do to help you? [/quote]
Not sure if this post is sarcasm or not. But this is a scary time for black people. [/quote]

It saddens me that your reaction is to assume I was being sarcastic.  I asked you sincerely if there was anything I could do as one white person acting on my own - which is the most I CAN do as an individual - that would help you. I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t sincere.

The offer stands. [/quote]

Not the PP -- and I, too, took your offer as potentially sarcastic.  Partly that's because I read it with a tone that you did not intend, and partly it's because of the phrase: "the injustices you perceive".  The phrase makes me recoil because systemic racism is real, it's embedded in our society and in American history -- it's not my personal perception, it's the reality that I'm dealing with every day.  Many people who haven't experienced this directly or even indirectly, and who have a traditional (not sure what kinder word I could use here) in American history question this reality because it's not THEIR experience or their reality.  So:

I like to be treated as an individual, and one of the most salient things about me is my experience as a black American -- so be open to understanding that and recognize that my experience may be very different from yours, but no less real, no less authentic and no less valid.  The next thing would be to familiarize yourself with African American history -- at a very basic level. As an example: My first visit to the oh-so-charming Old Town Alexandria included walking by a plaque marking a place where there had been a slave market.  One person's cute neighborhood might be another person's reminder that people like me were considered property and less than human not so long ago.  As in my grandparents -- who I knew -- would have known many people who were slaves.  The vestiges of segregation are still very much with us.  I say all of this because for me, one of the most important things people who are not African American can do for me is to acknowledge that many things including terrible things have been a part of my experience because of deliberate systemic actions. (Social security was written to exclude most blacks, as was the GI bill -- two factors that hugely created and sustained the post WWII white middle class in this country.)

So those two things, for me, would be a huge start: to acknowledge that the only country and the only history I have access to has deliberately not valued me as it has white Americans and their history.  And to treat me as a complex, unique individual.  If an individual, such as you, could do that in your interactions with me, that would be something that I would regard as extremely helpful.

Thank you very much for asking! [/quote]

I’m the person you quoted.

As to the “perceive” verbiage, which has seemed to upset so many people about what I wrote... I’m not really sure what there is to say. A person perceives and experiences things. You and I could look at the same exact thing, and perceive it two different ways. Much as with this post itself.

I meant my post as a sincere offer of contrition and willingness to offer up whatever I could as one person to try and make something better for one other person.

And you, and others, perceived it as sarcasm.

I admit I’m naive. And idealistic.

And I think I’m becoming aware that that’s my problem. [/quote]

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