An open letter to African-Americans who have left DU

[Feral Child]

35. To be honest

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 10:15 PM - Edit history (1)

I usually just prowl the Latest Threads page. I get an adequate overview of events but miss the id-depth sort of threads in the Groups.

I need to correct that. Besides missing out, I often subject myself to the turmoil in GD because that turns up most often in the Latest.

I'm beginning to believe that picking a few specific groups might be a better strategy. AA would be one, I'm sure. I'm considered white, despite the fact my father was NA.

I was raised in a working-class, predominently white neighborhood in a very diverse large city in the Midwest. I've never been exposed to NA culture, so my heritage is white, union Democrat. My parents were atheist union people and were not at all prejudiced. When I hit High School and was exposed to a more diverse experience I was shocked and appalled by the rampant prejudice. I became a teen and more culturally aware during the mid-sixties, during the Southern resistance to intergration but too young to participate.

It made an impact that has lasted and been reinforced my entire life. Among my chief political concerns I consider bigottry to be foremost. I empathize with the sorrow that minority people, the LGBT community, and women of all cultures must feel daily, knowing they are hated by and in constant danger from a huge segment of the white population.

It infuriates me. See my sig-line. The potency of the truth of that statement seems so inherently obvious that I'm amazed and angered by people so self-absorbed, hateful, and secretly afraid that they must convince themselves they're somehow superior to their personal target group. Groups, actually, because most bigots hate anything the consider different.

I'll be sure to visit here more often.