To those confused.

I've received comments from people who are confused, concerned, or just flat out pissed towards me because of a misunderstanding they have about why I write the way I do about racism and what that means for my feelings on White people. This is especially pronounced in my case because in the eyes of most Americans, I am a White man.

Some feel I am guilty. I'm not guilty about anything. I didn't create the system of racial privilege and I did not choose my skin color or any other physical feature. I feel no guilt. I do, however, recognize the responsibility I have now that I have become informed. Once informed, I now feel outrage when I see things perpetrated in a systemic and institutionalized way, all the way to a personal way when it comes to racism. I feel particularly outraged due to a lack thereof on the part of other White people, though ultimately my outrage isn't landed at their feet. This leads me to my second point.

I, for the record, do not and never have hated White people as a group. I don't automatically dislike them upon meeting them. How could I? I am White, most of my family is White, and some good friends of mine are White. I love all of these people dearly. Some integral people in my upbringing were White (my Grandmother on my Dad's side being one). Many well educated and respectable people in history and society today are White.

Where my outrage is ultimately directed and where I feel the most resentment (with regards to White people specifically) is with two groups:

1. White people who refuse to learn about the society they are in and how it functions. Ignorance is one thing, but that can only be allowed for so long. Flat out willfull ignorance of the problems and manifestations of injustice in society in order to preserve some fairly tale life one wishes to remain subdued in is not an excuse. I do find that many White people fall into this category, and it is with them that I hold a lot of bitterness towards upon encountering.

2. White people who know damn well what the system is, don't care, and do things consciously or unconsciously to perpetuate it on a regular basis. I have zero tolerance for these kinds of White people.

These two groups are bunched into a group and divided by a very thin line (sometimes they overlap in small ways), but I find these two to the best most problematic, followed by the "Well-meaning, do-gooder White" who is oblivious to racial issues in any authentic manner (outside from interpersonal and overt racism).

This does not mean I hate White people. If I hated White people, why the fuck would I try to reach out to and write about them and their behaviors if I hated them? Wouldn't I let it go and allow their racism to continue if I hated them?

The truth is that I think White people are better than this shit. I know what most White people act like in all-White settings. The truth is, most intelligent and educated White people are capable of learning so much about things like religious intolerance, homophobia, global climate change, politics, etc., so I know they are capable of learning this. I just also know it is a much tougher lesson for them to learn, so I go into it with a thicker skin and an attitude that is ready for all types of responses.

I also know that I have to be on the lookout for my own racism, educate myself on these matters, listen to other POC and Whites who are informed, and continually sharpen my understanding of this issue.

I believe the fight against racism to be a worthy one, as well as the fights against other injustices. But, if I treat White people like it is not their job to work against it with minorities, then that would be the one way I could show my lack of humility and caring towards the White community.