You know, I don’t talk about race with black people, for fairly similar reasons. As a white person, I’m not allowed to have an opinion about race, I’m not allowed to say anything that isn’t #blacklivesmatter or anything that isn’t, essentially, an apology for being born. If I don’t agree with you, its simply because I don’t understand or because I’m just not listening. White people don’t get to have a place in the discussion, they’re just supposed to sit back and accept that they are, by default, all personally responsible for all the racism in the world. It is true that white people do think of themselves as individuals, and I’d think from that you’d realize why coming up to one and saying you, specifically, are the reason my race dies and suffers and just by existing you are racist and terrible — isn’t really effective. There are a lot of reasons why black rhetoric doesn’t make an impact on white people, the first of which is because it is all very accusatory and damning. I can’t imagine any white person not getting defensive after reading things like “Thousands of black lives are sacrificed to protect your feelings”. I don’t see how you can imagine anyone would be receptive to that, even if that’s really how you feel about it. Attacking people and putting them on the defensive is the #1 best way to keep them from listening to you. Good job.

The other big problem I think white people have is that we get a lot of mixed, hypocritical signals. A white person would be attacked for treating all black people as a unit, or treating one black person as representative of his entire race, but that is repeatedly what articles like this do. White people just don’t get it, white people just don’t want to listen, white people are all racists and all damned whether they believe it or not simply for being born in a system that they had no choice in and that they personally did not create or have a part in creating. Not only that, but apparently all white people are to blame for what any other white person has done, ever. I’m still not sure what the statue of limitations on racial guilt is, but honestly I can’t blame people for refusing to be sorry for being born. I can’t blame people for refusing to self-flagellate for things they didn’t do and didn’t have a choice in. Again, you seem to understand that white people think individually, maybe apply that knowledge to your argument.

Racism is real. I for one hold many racist stereotypes in mind, I judge everyone around me at a glance and many times those judgements are unfair or racially motivated. This is true. I do benefit from a racist system, I am privileged in ways that black people are not. I don’t ever think about my race, it simply doesn’t matter in my day to day life. I understand that black people all over the country are afraid because they live in a country where the people with authority over them can arbitrarily mistreat and murder them without recourse. I can not and never will be able to imagine that kind of terror. I know I can’t directly understand the black experience, but I can employ enough empathy to understand fear, anger, and helplessness. I agree with you. I do. I think you’re in the right here, I just think you’re going about it the wrong way. I don’t think angrily blaming all white people individually for something they have no control over is going to get you very far. Offer solutions, not blame. Tell us what we can do to help you and we will. Tell us we’re all fuckers and we’ll say fuck you too.