We underestimate how hard it is to go against your peer group. It doesn't absolve us of our failures, but if we want to break this cycle we have to investigate why so many white people who are generally not racists don't stand up against it.
I think the "Karen" phenomenon is related. Entitled, and willing to employ any means at their disposal to maintain their "place in the world." That said place is not earned probably won't penetrate. That it's maintained by social intimidation and threats of career damage probably doesn't even cross their minds. It's not simply women, we joke about the old boy network, but those social networks often have people of both sexes constantly working to maintain a fierce uniformity of behavior, ethnicity and appearance. Plenty of white people have ancestors who abandoned their ethnic backgrounds to pass. It's easy if the only real obvious feature is a name, it's harder to change your skin tone. In either case it would mean surrendering part of what makes you yourself.
That kind of social control is easier in smaller communities, which probably explains why the current divide is rural / urban. It's harder to hide from your neighbors in a small town.
= new reply since forum marked as read
