Being a racist is hard...

especially if you're a minority.

 

Just in time for MLK day comes this racist drivel from Priscilla Ward for Salon.com - I would never have seen it except that one of my Facebook friends posted it with the admonition to READ! So I read and now I ring the bell.

• "I longed to crawl back to my tiny black universe."
• "I was all twisted up inside, ablaze over racial dynamics and anxious what other minefields my roommate might stumble upon."
• "I wanted my home to be a refuge, a place where I could be wretched when I wanted, walk around in my bonnet, fry chicken and sing real loud to Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Suppressing my blackness every day is exhausting."
• "I guess some white people do act “real vanilla” and only understand the realities of their own universe."
• "I keep those “forbidden” conversations behind closed doors, and even when I’m alone I speak in code. I don’t say “white.” I use “they” instead."
• "But I want to stop tiptoeing around race. My blackness is not a secret I have to keep. I want to be able to publicly express my honest admiration for being black, outside of my little black planet. I don’t want to feel marginalized, like I can’t speak hard truths about myself. Having honest and challenging conversations with people of another race will hopefully disrupt other people’s ignorance. But it will also help me. I need to stop with my mental temper tantrums. I want to get free."

I feel for her, I truly do, and I don't mean to ridicule the trauma she feels about Ferguson or the Eric Garner verdict but her hyper-identification with her own race and blank dismissal of other races, their interests or viewpoints is classic racist thinking. I imagine that most of her "white" friends are the type that require a guide book to understand their inscrutable worldview. If she really wants to "get free" she should read some MLK.