re: #16 SamOwl

That being said, I think I’ve overstayed my “welcome” now.

Hold on there, pardner. There are commenters here who are MUCH more obnoxious than you are, and they haven’t been given the boot.

I was a very smart young person once. Now I’m older. It’s not ageism to note a difference. It’s only annoying and pointless to say, ‘you’ll see’.

From your comment at #12:

[…]

I am familiar with voter ID laws (which is essentially just a replacement for voter literacy tests), gerrymandering, and the like. I am familiar with institutional racism. My issue is not with explaining to people what these issues are, but with the way they are expressed. As I said, to give the definition that all white people benefit from racism, and then the subsequent thought that all white people practice racism or that all white people are racist, is very, very dangerous.

The problem so many white people have, including myself at one point in time, with identifying where white privilege exists and how we can run faster than the escalator can slide us up (an analogy for the way one must fight the system of racism in order for it to have any effect), is that the way the message is being conveyed is in a way that just causes people to resent whites, and for whites to feel guilty just for being born the way they are.

That paragraph above sums up what my overall message is about this topic.

In that bolded part, is the ‘subsequent thought’ part of the definition of racism? Or the thought you have when someone says ‘All white people benefit from racism’?

Did you know you can benefit from racism without feeling guilty about it? If you didn’t cause it, and are fighting it, why should you feel guilty? Recognizing your own white privilege doesn’t have to cause resentment. How you deal with it is up to you.

Your comment just above is pretty rude. First of all, you don’t indicate who you are addressing. Secondly, it looks to me like you’re saying, ‘If you’re white, I’m going to make one set of assumptions about you. If you’re not white, I’m going to make a different set of assumptions about you.’

You don’t have to make assumptions about anyone here. You can stick around and get to know them, and discuss these things. But if you’re rude, you’re more likely to get the snark first. If you continue that way, snark is all you’ll get.