So this bothers me. A verified account throws out a claim that sounds outrageous- that families routinely give out $50-100k gifts to their relatives and it’s an advantage that Black folks don’t have. It’s not true according to any of my or my friends or family’s experience.
After 200k likes and retweets she deflects immediately and says maybe whites don’t have this experience but others do and goes off on a tangent about financial gaps and economic disparity which is all fair - but this initial wild claim is what got the attention
So her claim that whites are routinely getting massive familial help with house buying and that it’s a 400-year head start - it’s bullshit. But sadly it’s lapped up by people in desperate economic straits
So my dad was a postal worker and my mom was stay at home and did occasional work outside of the home. Blue collar working class. One reason I have empathy for minority outrage is that many are just like my family - folks that just want to provide a good life for their kids
And honestly, that’s where the majority of the “allyship” between white and black lies - not between white upper class liberals and the lower class they seek to be a savior for, but between humans that have worked the same jobs and have the same damn goals for their families
I know that sadly there are a lot of folks that believe all of us whites are born with silver spoons in our mouths. We’re not. They believe it because they haven’t interacted with someone who wasn’t an asshole, so the exaggeration is easy to believe
That this straight lie got such traction- I don’t know, there’s a lot of BS to unpack. The willingness to believe it from people who have so little and the willingness to exploit it by people for either clout or political gain - the former makes me sad, the latter makes me angry
There is a privilege in not having to worry about being executed on the sidewalk by police during a traffic stop. Don’t deny that. But some of the other stuff - it’s manufactured. Whites, especially working and blue collar, want to get along with their neighbors and coworkers
This is the kind of thread that gives me anxiety. But truthfully- none of us are that far apart as some would have us believe. I want all my fellow brothers and sisters to feel safe and be prosperous. I am not alone in that.
That’s all. We’re all beautiful people and we all just want to live. It’s the nonsense and the tribalism and the overthinking that drive us into camps and I’m over it.
