“Clearly, you must just not like white people” “I think you’ve become what you’re fighting. A racist…Shame.” “There isn’t really a space for someone like you, here” “He’s just so angry these days and too sensitive. I miss the old Wisdom” I’ve heard these phrases over and over from close friends, colleagues, managers, and acquaintances.… Continue reading Can The “Angry Black Guy” Have White Friends?
Tag: Whiteness
The Buck Stops Here
“Why can’t we all just get along? I didn’t do anything personally to cause oppression, so why would you call me an oppressor? You’re just stoking more racial tension by discussing racism.” Every day, these same delusional questions and statements are posited by us white folks. Every day, after centuries of racism and genocide at… Continue reading The Buck Stops Here
Rachel Dolezal and Defining Blackness
Outside of adoptions, “transracial” isn’t a thing, and race is not a social construct. Let me explain… By now, we’ve all heard of Rachel Dolezal. Yes, she is president of her local NAACP branch. Yes, she was recently outed by her white parents. Yes, she has been deceptive about her racial heritage. But transraciality doesn’t… Continue reading Rachel Dolezal and Defining Blackness
How to Be Beige
I was wearing my best polo shirt, baggy jeans, and gold hoops on the first day of high school. It was the perfect outfit for a ninth grader at the large New Jersey school I should have been attending, surrounded by all of my childhood friends, but a terrible choice for the suburban New England… Continue reading How to Be Beige
On Appropriateness and Appropriation
My fellow white men, Ferguson was insane. Back then, I split my time between New York City and North Florida, so I was able to witness two very different communities responding. Predictably, the white, male, cisgendered group (of which many of us are part) in Florida substantively crushed the myth of post-racism in modern society.… Continue reading On Appropriateness and Appropriation