For white folks there is a catch 22 of sorts. If you're like me and you simply "unfriend" racists when they're discovered, it keeps them in their twisted little silos. But I can't stand being around them, so that's that. But the down side is that it keeps them in those silos, where they can gather together and support each other's mental illnesss.

If an acquitance of mine uses racist terminology, that ends the relationship, but not before I tell him (I realize there are a lot of Karens but male hate is mostly fueled by males) that he's a primitive knuckle dragger.

One thing white people can do is push the narrative that racism is a mental illness, because that is what it is. If I was able to figure out when I was 10 that making decisions about people based on skin color is weird, then that is evidence enough to me, no matter what the psych books say.

It's distressing to see this current backlash against the limited progress that's been made, but as a foggy-eyed optimist I can't help but think that's what it is - one last stand by the insane.

But this last stand is wicked because all whites have a lot of shitty tapes in our heads passed down through generations. The backlash helps bring out the worst of those tapes, and prompts white folks to shrug our shoulders and say, "that's not me," as we overlook our own sometimes more subtle racist thoughts.