Back in 2008, I told my friends, “never underestimate the racists and hate that persists in the south” when they were appalled by me saying, “I’ll be surprised if there isn’t an attempt at Obama.”
The true problem isn’t that racists exist. It’s that far too many comfortable people fail to understand THAT racists and hateful bigots still exist.
What is ‘it’? Why do you experience it? What are you doing to deserve it? Being ignorant to your privilege? Trying to use your privilege like those morons that parked their boat?
If you’re receiving racism as a white dude … you probably deserve it. This is coming from a white dude.
You last paragraph suggests you’ve already made up your mind. People who victim blame ask questions all the time, they just don’t bother waiting for the answer before stating their preconceived conclusion. Just like you did, tbh.
The only slight silver lining for me in this whole shit show is that it shined a light on how prevalent racism is across the country. As an older white guy on the west coast, I knew there was still a fair amount of racism, but figured it was mostly found in the rural south and scattered uneducated cretins. It turns out that a giant percentage of our population are racists who used to keep those opinions to themselves. Now they feel like it’s completely acceptable to voice those opinions, and the rest of us can see the magnitude of the problem.