And yet, perhaps the most supremely insulting form of bigotry against White people is the clear expectation on the part of large numbers of White people that all White people must behave like assholes, all be deeply infected with White racism, and all think alike, or, if we don’t, at least be too chicken (with apologies to the poultry) to do anything about it.
I would recommend that if you are a White lo fan, try shopping in a department store that caters mainly to Chinese and Chinese American people, in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood. I can personally attest that the undisguised contempt you may meet with there is a bracing dose of our own medicine. Come to think of it, in my faraway distant youth there was a minute when a dear friend’s family got giggles from preceding the noun “Caucasian” with the adjective “dumb,” pronounced as all one word: “dumbCaucasian.” They weren’t saying it to me, but I could take the inference. And here I am to tell the tale.
Q: That’s cute, but Black people have been really mean to me!
A: Oh, gosh. Black people have been really mean to me, too, and have hurt my feelings ever so bad. Leaving aside all the times Black people have hurt my feelings around issues that everyone else felt equally free to hurt my feelings about, I haven’t been above pouring myself a big old glass of White whine, privately and inwardly because I try so hard to be cool, following upon the occasion of having my coat pulled by a kind Black friend to something offensive I’ve done or said, or because I had to suffer the consequences of other White people’s bad behavior. Why, in 2022 that same Michael Harriot reported in thegrio.com that the Black Legislative American Cookout Council (BLACC) voted to “extend their ban on white people” for the 2022 barbecue season, that “they promised to hold another vote when … ‘white people start acting like they got some sense,’” and—here’s the kicker—“they will revisit the issue in 2122.” Ouch! Michael! That hurts! Waiter, bring me a great big glass of White whine! No, wait—make it a bottle!
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