Thread by @bradbatt

A few years ago in Knoxville I made an illegal u-turn. I parked, exited my car, and there was a cop who saw the whole thing.

I gave him a guilty-looking nod and he said, "You know that's illegal right?"

"No. Sorry!"

I smiled. He smiled. I kept walking. That's peak whiteness.

In my defense, I didn't realize it was illegal.

But when you're white you really don't need a defense, do you?

Can we stop pretending that we all don't know that white people and black people are treated differently by police?

Sandra Bland was stopped 20 mins from where my parents live. That cop would have never treated my white mother that way. She wouldn't have even gotten pulled over.

I played with toy guns as a kid. All the time. That was a thing. It was commonplace.

And the police shot a 13-year-old Tamir Rice for doing the same thing I'd grown up doing my whole childhood.

Just executed him. In broad daylight.

How can we not admit that we have a problem?

I may sit her all night and think of all the racist things I've seen with my white eyes in my 47 years.

When I went to college in 1990 all of the black students sat on one side of the cafeteria and all of the whites on the other. We weren't forced to. That's just how it was.

Of course there were separate black and white fraternities and sororities.

Everyone knew Kappa Alpha was the most racist fraternity. They were all at least a little racist, but the KAs were the worst.

Anyone who went to college in the south knows this.

I have relatives today who use phrases like "the blacks" and simultaneously deny their racism. They refuse to learn even when gently corrected.

I know this happens around the country because my friends have the same stories.

I just would like us all to admit that America has a race problem. We have to at least start there. We all know it, it's just that some of us have the guts to admit it.

The rest of you are too ashamed to say it.

We're ashamed too, but at least we acknowledge it.

9% of people still "don't believe" in interracial marriage.

That is literally the dumbest thing ever. People can marry whoever the hell they want and it's none of anyone's business.

But you know what it means for interracial couples? 1 in 10 people they encounter is a racist.

Part of our problem today isn't just the police. It's white people who call the police on black people doing regular things.

They call the police on black people having BBQs. They call the police on black people using their own apartment's gym. They call for anything they want.

We all know this happens. We only see the extreme cases that make the news. Let's stop pretending that this isn't commonplace in the lives of black people.

Remember the stat above - 9% of Americans are people against "race mixing". That is uber racist, no way around it. 1 in 10.

There is a bust in the Tennessee State House of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

He was the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

You literally cannot get more racist than that.

It's disgusting that a reminder of that sits prominently in our state house. It's abhorrent and it's indefensible.

What are we going to do to fix all this?