Orion Hunter
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

I didn’t know a single other Black child in grade school who *didn’t* like the television series The Dukes of Hazzard when it was on the air. And there were kids, Black kids, bearing the series branded accouterments: for anyone who knows the series, that merchandise would necessarily have included imagery of the titular Dukes classic Dodge Charger dubbed “The General Lee,” a car which prominently displayed a Confederate flag on its hood. So, that meant that it was commonplace for me to see Black children with imagery containing Confederate flags on their t-shirts, lunchboxes, backpacks etc.

At some unspecified point in the past, you were subjected to what is legally classified “simple assault,” or “battery,” by a racist man. Intentionally spitting on someone is almost certain to be an egregious provocation which is why the penalties for it, depending on the jurisdiction, can range from fines in the thousands-of-dollars, up to years of jail time.

You shared with your readers that earlier this year, you were moved to lend some form of tacit support to a young Black boy who himself was compelled to confront people who were wearing red baseball caps on which was printed a caption used in a political campaign.

You also shared with your readers that someone for whom you publicly profess your love simply couldn’t countenance you addressing her by an affectionate pet name, on the grounds that said name is “appropriation” of her culture.

Here’s what I consider to be the most important assertion in your piece:

“White people benefit every time they rent an apartment, buy a car, apply for a job, apply for a loan, apply to college. My daughter and I are more likely to survive childbirth, and there is a better chance that I’ll be alive after I’m pulled over by a cop for a broken tail light.”

And now that I’ve put all the elements of my argument in place, I can, mercifully, get to the point: If it were up to me, I’d like to see a shitload more effort by White people addressing the reality you describe in the preceding quote, and far less concern from White people about protecting us from the display of Confederate flags and red baseball caps. Were it my choice, I’d choose that solving the problems of structural and institutional racism you mention should be at a place in White people’s agenda waaaay above offensive flags and hats.

Because, as I illustrated, Black people used to be able to absorb racially-offensive sights and sounds just fine. Among the struggles of the generations of Black people born and raised in America, none of us, until fairly-recently, had “obliquely-offensive things which hurt our feelings” at the top of the list of racist transgressions about which we needed to worry.

A Black person seeing a red hat is not an offense on a par with being shot for no reason by police, being denied a job or apartment; It’s not not even on a par with being spat upon. And I’m still trying to figure out when the Copyright was issued to Black people giving us exclusive right to the pet name “Sis,” which is an address I can easily imagine was used on The Brady Bunch, a show from which Black people were conspicuous for their absence.

If indeed Black people presently lack the constitution to bear seeing offensive flags and hats, or being addressed by the wrong pet names by our loved-ones, that represents a serious problem that we ought to be addressing. In the meantime, well-meaning White people might want to take a hard look at what it is they do, and don’t do, which makes those aforementioned manifestations of institutional and structural racism the persistent problems they are.

And, if you find yourself inclined to ask, “Can’t we focus on both?” I will answer by pointing out that evidently you can’t. And further, I would suggest to you that the current emphasis on that which is obliquely-offensive to Black people serves the end of keeping people preoccupied enough that that one the anecdotal stories that you chose to share weren’t about how a dear Black friend of yours was denied a small-business loan for the stated reason that she intended to start a business in a Black community. That happens. Every day. And its one of the reason why so many Black communities are perennially economically depressed.

And yet I’m supposed to be up-in-arms about White people wearing baseball caps, and otherwise minding their own business.

Priorities please.