"The comical scene played out to its record-scratching, freeze-frame, “WTF?” climax around a picnic table populated by frat boys in the middle of the sunny UCLA campus. It seemed like the thousandth time a friend had suddenly unloaded a blatantly racist bombshell, although this was the wildest one yet.
As a Canadian working and studying in Los Angeles for ten years, I began to wonder why progressive young hipsters of various races were so eager to privately share their disturbing ideas about black people. The fact that these probing admissions came from a large number of my “coolest” friends, rather than the usual suspects, made it seem like a disturbing new cultural phenomenon.
Seemingly nice young people, once they knew and trusted each other, were trying to take their friendship “to the next level” with these revelations of their racist beliefs. It was like they felt they could finally talk openly and drop the façade they maintained in public. They did this joyfully, as if it were a postmodern bonding ritual to confirm that they were members of the same cool social “tribe,” one that didn’t include blacks."
http://thegrio.com/2015/02/15/white-liberal-racists/
Sometimes I read things that make me just want to live in a cave and never interact with people ever again.
These scenarios remind me of moments when I have gotten to know a friend relatively well, spent a lot of time with them, and they feel comfortable around me and suddenly it's time for them to ask me the questions they have always had about black people or air the theories they have always had about race or racism and which are now my responsibility to discuss with them. There is also this sort of overlap with a you-don't-meet-my-stereotypes thing, a you're-not-really-black thing that rarely invalidates the stereotypes but instead erases my identity. Which might mean that I get to hear more of their ugly thoughts about race funfunfun.
As a Canadian working and studying in Los Angeles for ten years, I began to wonder why progressive young hipsters of various races were so eager to privately share their disturbing ideas about black people. The fact that these probing admissions came from a large number of my “coolest” friends, rather than the usual suspects, made it seem like a disturbing new cultural phenomenon.
Seemingly nice young people, once they knew and trusted each other, were trying to take their friendship “to the next level” with these revelations of their racist beliefs. It was like they felt they could finally talk openly and drop the façade they maintained in public. They did this joyfully, as if it were a postmodern bonding ritual to confirm that they were members of the same cool social “tribe,” one that didn’t include blacks."
http://thegrio.com/2015/02/15/white-liberal-racists/
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