I really shouldn't post this. But there's Bushmill's left and I'm not quite asleep yet.

These discussions never seem to get anywhere, but I suspect that's because the actual progress is infinitesimal. As such, we must have a million such discussions if we are to move an inch.

Yet movement is vital, so a million discussions we must have.

Something perpetually lacking in these discussions is empathy. White people can't think black, and black people are sick to death of thinking white. The minority lets out a wounded, primal howl and the majority says "there there, it isn't as bad as all that" thinking that it will somehow make things better. Perhaps if we bash each other over the head with our misunderstandings one more time someone will see reason... but that's more of a wish than a goal.

White people read this rant and think to themselves that they've never participated in oppression. That they have contributed nothing to the negative outcomes that they acknowledge the minority experiences. They see that the situation has been made awkward and they don't like it. They know they can do nothing about it, yet they have the urge to try. So they attempt to reframe the argument in such a way where they are not personally culpable for the pain without recognizing that it's not an argument.

The minorities read this rant and affirm that they are the subject of constant oppression. That oppression is a binary state and that if one is not actively working to alleviate that oppression, one is actively working to perpetuate that oppression. They know they can do nothing about it so they have the urge to cry out, to make their white friends and colleagues and acquaintances SEE, for once, that they are NOT treated as equals, that racism did NOT die with the election of a black president, that while progress has been made it sure as fuck isn't enough and that how, in this free country of ours where everyone is guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are they still subject to persecution, poverty and the perpetual short end of the stick?

By the very nature of the discussion, the minority is saying "this sucks, and there's nothing I can do about it." The majority can only say "this sucks, and there's nothing I can do about it." They're both right, and they're both wrong. There's no comfortable way to make things better. There's no easy way to make things better. So what we're left with is a perpetual discussion wherein the minority says "I know we've been letting on that things are okay, but they aren't, and we need to do something about it." The majority is put in the position of acknowledging they've been living a lie.

It sucks for everyone. The difference is, the suckitude is novel for the white folx.

I love my country. We're one of the least racist countries in the world. Doesn't mean we aren't racist. The level of racism is greater than we have been led to believe because the advances of the Civil Rights Movement would seem hollow. So us white folx are left with the uncomfortable truth the Civil War wasn't enough by a long sight. That MLK's dream is a long way from realized. That you think you got it tough but one of the quickest ways to find someone who's got it tougher is to look for darker skin.

So we have to listen to these. More importantly, we have to hear them. White cops have been killing black men for decades... the turning point we've reached is it's starting to not be okay. And when we acknowledge that we're forced to acknowledge that we haven't come a fraction as far as we thought and we've got a long damn way to go.

But we gotta go. And it's unpleasant, and it's a lot of work, and it's embarrassing, and it's personally shameful but fuck if I didn't have a cop pull me over and not write me a ticket because he realized I wasn't Hispanic.

To carry not only the force of a country that has always tried to push you down, but also the emotional toll it puts on you whilst being told that all of it is either your fault or an overreaction on your part isn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy."

What's really gonna bake your noodle is it isn't personal. We're on top, you're not, and most of the time you don't wanna stir things up by pointing out that isn't okay.

It isn't okay. But it also isn't going to change tomorrow. So read it, internalize it, recognize where it's coming from, and accept that luck is a skin color... at least, until we do something about it.