1/ People who are freaking out about the poll that found nearly 1/2 of Black folk don't think it's "OK to be white" (or don't know if it is) are distorting what's beneath that perspective. It isn't 'genocidal' (as per Matt Walsh's silly hot take), or 'hate' (as per Scott Adams)..
2/ For many Black people -- and right wingers would know this if they knew more of them or ever discussed these issues with them -- whiteness is a state of mind. Indeed, Dick Gregory famously said that 50 years ago. His point: the dominant mentality of "white" was a problem...
3/ First bc it was the mentality that undergirded the subordination of Black people in America (among others), and was created for that purpose (Europeans hadn't been white in Europe -- we became that for a reason, and it was a bad one)...
4/ And what Gregory was also saying (and it's a perspective shared by many Black folks today, including, I'm betting those who would answer the poll question that way), is that people who are white don't always adopt the white mentality, and sometimes POC actually DO...
5/ So, what makes "being white" not OK to many is that it too often comes with a certain set of political and ideological assumptions, but it doesn't HAVE to. And anyone who rejects that mindset that has historically done so much harm, is just fine. But if you adopt it?...
6/ That's the problem...not being white per se, but what comes with that far too often.
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