I’m writing this for black people who are stuck thinking every white person is a racist. And for white people who think every black person is a criminal. Very, very oddly, this is exactly what the left wants us all to think. Why? It inculcates division. It solidifies their racist narrative of poor poor black victims needing their protection from big unfair whitey. Y’know where this is most effective? In circles where white liberals actually have no real black friends and where black democrats actually have no real white friends.
A friend of mine was walking past me at the golf course a few days ago. My friend is black. We don’t barbecue together. We don’t live near each other. We have played a hundred rounds of golf together. We both played college basketball.
I see him coming up on my 6 and say, “damn. You scared the hell out of me. Black dude. Walking up behind me. What were you thinking?” He replied, “dangit. I was trying to get my gun out, but couldn’t remember what pocket (of his golf bag) it was in.” A couple chuckles. A little more banter. Respect. Both ways.
We are different. We come from different cultures. Period. End of story. I will never fully understand what he faces in this society being black. My friend is a handsome, well-educated, very successful professional. Yet, on occasion, he still gets followed around different stores like he is a card-carrying shop lifter. Racism is very real. Most black people think most white people are racist. That’s just a fact. There is a general tension between the communities that was gradually getting better. Right up until a racist political agitator wormed and cheesy smiled his way into the oval office.
Obama revived racism as a political weapon on steroids. In the black community he was the golden child. The Man. In reality he was a socialist architect. One with an eye to his own power and financial success. It was an easy sell to the black community. I look like you. I’ll stand up to whitey like you’ve never seen at this level. Division and power. And off Obama went for eight years. Only in this last election cycle has his poison appeared to be thinning out a little.
Like the example I gave with the interaction between my friend and I. We interacted on the basis of existing realities. Our personal interaction was a declaration of how idiotic these racial generalities are when it comes to one on one interactions.
I always say that if you aren’t trading racial insults with your black friends, you probably really don’t have any black friends. Those exchanges are the actual declaration that those supposed biases are qualified as BS between us. One on one. Right here. Right now.
How do things get better? One relationship at a time between people that get their differences, celebrate those differences and move onto the place where you make fun of the caricature society keeps force feeding us.
It also has a chance of getting way better if the left stops their incessant use of identity politics as the forefront of their political messaging. Enough already. Give it a rest.
I’ll never like rap music. I’ll never live in a “black” neighborhood at this point. But what I do share with my black friends is special.
We have found music we can both dance to. (Even though one of us can dance way better..)