As someone who shares the demographic of the worst of white fear mongers, I think about this stuff more than I'd like to. I try to figure out what they're so afraid of, and I just come up empty.
I'm currently living in midtown Atlanta and so I should be right in the middle of the attacks against whites. I should be dodging bullets, nunchucks, bike chains, and baseball bats if the fear mongers are at all right. I should wear armor when I walk the Beltline.
Instead, what I see is a whole lot of hard-working people, most of them working paycheck to paycheck, trying to get by in an inequitable world. But none of them are pointing fingers and blaming me for their problems.
The Black meat manager at Whole Foods is as sweet as can be. And he's really good at his job. Best quality meat I've seen in forever. (yeah I know, I shouldn't be eating red meat - climate change and all, and I'm working on that).
My Black neighbor is ridiculously nice. The Black Amazon and UPS delivery and Uber drivers always greet me with warm smiles and friendly conversation. So, where's the retribution?
You know the old saying, "some of my best friends are…?" Well when I was growing up just south of Chicago, some of my best friends really were Black.
The kind of race issues that came up were these: When we went to a store together, my Black friend was watched, and I wasn't. I could have become quite the ace shoplifter. All I needed was my reliable decoy. Some of us really do miss our true calling!
The promise that my mom made to me, that Black kids would beat me up when I got to high school, somehow never materialized.
When I was living in Texas I also thought about this stuff. I'd be walking around during a Friday night art walk and marveling at how downtown Round Rock Texas, ROUND ROCK TEXAS, of all places, looked like a United Nations gathering.
Maybe that's what they're afraid of? That the country is becoming truly multicultural? But if that's true, sorry guys, it's already happened. Your greatest fears have been realized. Welcome to Planet Earth.
And why would you NOT want that to happen? Diversity of culture is a great thing. Homogenization sucks. One thing I hate about gentrification is that it knocks down cultures in favor of more of what I think this country needs less of, not more.
