# Living while black in America **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 9, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611 "2018-07-09T21:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Huey\_Freeman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/huey_freeman/32/251_2.png) [@Huey\_Freeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huey_Freeman)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/483 "2018-08-03T21:43:03Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Yeah, but does Vancouver want you? I highly doubt it. > > Racism is indeed a huge fucking problem in this country. The OP, however, is also a huge fucking jagoff, and I have no intention of taking the guy seriously. He seems more like a conspiracy theorist than someone who’s genuinely interested in improving race relations here in the U.S\*. He’s starting to remind me of sovereign citizens/freemen on the land who come up all that bullshit about fringe on flags. I’m not about to pay four bucks to get access to his second cite – I’m guessing it’s pretty much the same thing? > > Either that or he’s just some troll trying to stir things up? He’s amusing, whatever he is. > \*\* > _I also want to state that I’m not one of those people who think black people should be all nicey-nice and “please, can we have our rights now?” Just that this dude is coo coo for cocoa pops._\* (emphasis mine) First, as to the bolded point, that’s exactly what it is. The only time blacks have white people’s attention is when we’re jumping, running, laughing, dribbling, joking, or otherwise entertaining you. White folks tolerate blacks only when we’re doing something they like. Period. To your second point, race relations will improve in this country will white folks want it to improve. Indeed, Brother Baldwin wrote “White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.” Lastly, it is not my or any other person of color’s responsibility to mend fences with white folks won’t even live near us or attempt to engage us as human beings. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/484 "2018-08-03T21:49:31Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > (emphasis mine) > > First, as to the bolded point, that’s exactly what it is. The only time blacks have white people’s attention is when we’re jumping, running, laughing, dribbling, joking, or otherwise entertaining you. White folks tolerate blacks only when we’re doing something they like. Period. To your second point, race relations will improve in this country will white folks want it to improve. Indeed, Brother Baldwin wrote “White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.” Lastly, it is not my or any other person of color’s responsibility to mend fences with white folks won’t even live near us or attempt to engage us as human beings. Some of my neighbors are black and we interact as normal humans do. At my previous house some of my neighbors were black and we interacted just fine. Some of their proposed solutions for the lower classes sounded a bit extreme though. Perhaps, stereotyping is counterproductive? ---
**Author:** ![Huey\_Freeman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/huey_freeman/32/251_2.png) [@Huey\_Freeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huey_Freeman)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/485 "2018-08-03T21:51:19Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Dude, tone it down. D-Odds is actually on your side. He even acknowledged that the event might be racist, he was just offering an alternative explanation. Racism in America is a huge deal, and needs to be addressed, but frankly **the take no prisoners, all whites are the enemy, racism is the explanation for everything attitude you are promoting in this thread is not helpful.** This is a curious statement. What is helpful? When we engage in nonvocal, nonviolent, nonmotile protests, it draws the ire of the President of the United States and wrath of white folks. Tell us. What should we do? March? Walk? Protest? Call our Senator? Vote? Don’t tell us what not to do. Tell us what we should do. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/486 "2018-08-03T21:56:14Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > This is a curious statement. What is helpful? When we engage in nonvocal, nonviolent, nonmotile protests, it draws the ire of the President of the United States and wrath of white folks. Tell us. What should we do? March? Walk? Protest? Call our Senator? Vote? Don’t tell us what not to do. Tell us what we should do. How about quit making assumptions about your audience. and try to talk _with_ them instead of _at_ them. You’re not a guest lecturer here. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/487 "2018-08-03T21:58:39Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You are going to ruin my reputation. I’ll not rest until that day. Or something. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/488 "2018-08-03T22:08:44Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > The white folks covered this at [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-origins-of-policing-in-the-united-states/). Further, Turner, Giacopassi and Vandiver, in the [Journal of Criminal Justice Education](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511250500335627), add that “the literature clearly establishes that a legally sanctioned law enforcement system existed in America before the Civil War for the express purpose of controlling the slave population and protecting the interests of slave owners. The similarities between the slave patrols and modern American policing are too salient to dismiss or ignore. Hence, the slave patrol should be considered a forerunner of modern American law enforcement.” This is also intuitive. You don’t need an official-sounding white person to unpack it. Simply look at the slave catcher badge and compare that to the normal police badge. > > [Picture 1](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnLYM5RWYAA8u72.jpg) > [Picture 2](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnAxwOIXgAAPkI4.jpg). Patrols by watchmen of various sorts (military and civilian) predate the American antebellum slave patrols. Patrols by watchmen of various sorts (military and civilian) existed throughout history around the world. It seems you should make an argument to rule out the possibility that modern police beats are the descendants of the various patrols of watchmen around the world throughout history **if** you are trying to make the case that modern police beats are _only_ descended from American antebellum slave patrols… Your case would be stronger if you did. ymmv As is, you’ve not excluded the possibility that slave patrols and modern police patrols share a common ancestor in the various other patrols of human history — iow cousins rather than parent and child. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/489 "2018-08-03T23:01:47Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > This is a curious statement. What is helpful? When we engage in nonvocal, nonviolent, nonmotile protests, it draws the ire of the President of the United States and wrath of white folks. Tell us. What should we do? March? Walk? Protest? Call our Senator? Vote? Don’t tell us what not to do. Tell us what we should do. Engage rather than shout, don’t turn against people who are actually on your side, and don’t be a walking caricature of everything the the right claims is true about black activists. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/490 "2018-08-03T23:05:27Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > It seems you should make an argument to rule out the possibility that modern police beats are the descendants of the various patrols of watchmen around the world throughout history **if** you are trying to make the case that modern police beats are _only_ descended from American antebellum slave patrols. The thing is, even if he’s right, who cares. Lots of things no way resemble their origins of a hundred plus years ago. The Republican party’s origin was as the party of black liberation, but look at it now. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/491 "2018-08-03T23:05:51Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > …The only time blacks have **white people** ’s attention is when we’re jumping, running, laughing, dribbling, joking, or otherwise entertaining you. **White folks** tolerate blacks only when we’re doing something they like. Period…Lastly, it is not my or any other person of color’s responsibility to mend fences with **white folks** won’t even live near us or attempt to **engage us as human beings**. And by the evidence of this thread you think a constructive approach to life for a black person today is to treat “white folks” as a monolithic enemy, right? Rather than human beings. So you’re a fan of Robin DiAngelo. She has some insightful things to say. But it’s one thing to challenge widespread unconscious racist assumptions, to disrupt white people’s comfortable privilege; it’s quite another to make preposterous sweeping generalized accusations that alienate rather than enlighten. You give angry, ignorant, patronizing lectures, with little regard for facts or evidence, accusing all “white folks” of collective guilt; then seek to dismiss any negative reaction as white fragility, so that anyone who disagrees with you or challenges your claims is conveniently just affirming the validity of your worldview, right? Well, just as Carl Sagan pointed out that they _also_ laughed at Bozo The Clown, not _all_ negative reactions among “white folks” are solely attributable to white fragility. Perhaps you’re not the proud crusader that you think you are. Perhaps you’re an ignorant divisive scumbag with scant regard for facts or evidence. I feel so _fragile_ that I can’t embrace that. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/492 "2018-08-04T00:02:22Z")
I think Huey’s little brother Riley has hacked his account. Someone should tell Granddad. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/493 "2018-08-04T00:29:24Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Aw, c’mon! She has AUTISM! Plus her dad is PUERTO RICAN! It was TRIGGERING! How dare people suggest it was about RACE??? > > Christ almighty. If you’re gonna call the cops on a black person over some trivial bullshit, and they pull out the camera, pro-tip, folks: back the fuck down, or yer gonna go viral. I saw a black woman at a bus stop. I totally called the cops on her. I mean, what if she was taking the bus to some place to commit a crime? > [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > (emphasis mine) > > First, as to the bolded point, that’s exactly what it is. The only time blacks have white people’s attention is when we’re jumping, running, laughing, dribbling, joking, or otherwise entertaining you. White folks tolerate blacks only when we’re doing something they like. Period. To your second point, race relations will improve in this country will white folks want it to improve. Indeed, Brother Baldwin wrote “White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.” Lastly, it is not my or any other person of color’s responsibility to mend fences with white folks won’t even live near us or attempt to engage us as human beings. Likewise, it’s not my responsibility to mend fences with crazy people. You don’t even know whether or not I’m white, whether I live near black people, or “attempt to engage with them as human beings.”\* Put away the Kafka trap, dude. \*I have no problem living by people of any particular race. Unless they’re Flyers fans. Then they can fuck off. ---
**Author:** ![Huey\_Freeman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/huey_freeman/32/251_2.png) [@Huey\_Freeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huey_Freeman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/494 "2018-08-04T02:35:16Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > . …Put away the Kafka trap, dude… The kafka trap is, as I mentioned before, white supremacist nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/495 "2018-08-04T02:45:43Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > The kafka trap is, as I mentioned before, white supremacist nonsense. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/496 "2018-08-04T02:54:39Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > \*I have no problem living by people of any particular race. Unless they’re Flyers fans. Then they can fuck off. Flyers fans and Keyser Söze. Fuck that guy. ---
**Author:** ![Huey\_Freeman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/huey_freeman/32/251_2.png) [@Huey\_Freeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huey_Freeman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/497 "2018-08-04T04:00:55Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Engage rather than shout, don’t turn against people who are actually on your side, and don’t be a\*\* walking caricature of everything the the right claims is true about black activists\*\*. (emphasis mine) Has it ever occurred to you that white people’s actions over the last 10 years is a “walking caricature of everything the Nation of Islam claim about white folks”? Has it occurred to you that having your fora filled with threads that demean people of color, people here are painting a “walking caricature of everything Baldwin, Coates, Oluo, DiAngelo, and DuBois claim about white folks”? Or is the caricaturing one-directional? In any case, you have me misunderstood. I do not care about conservatives or what conservatives think. I’ll go even further and state that after November 2016, I no longer think most conservatives and “independents” are human in the classical sense of the word. I have dehumanized them in the same way they have dehumanized people of color; the incomparable Mike Wallace - a white man - coined the phrase “The Hate that Hate produced”. It’s something like that. The plurality of white folks - from Joe the Plumber to Jane the Banker - voted for a man who referred to his own daughter as a “piece of ass” and who described his healthcare plan as “the finest health-care plan there is” but without giving any specifics. They voted for a man who claimed that you grab females by the pussy followed by “You can do anything”. They still voted for his ass. They voted and still support a man who separates children from their families, a man who routinely lies and attacks the press, and the man who continues to demean people of color for engaging in nonviolent protest against his regime. Not to he undone, white folks went to the polls and overwhelmingly supported an alleged pedophile at the polls in Alabama. And you think I care about a party whose use of coded language and news websites paint people of color as violent, dangerous, and unintelligent? You think I care what conservatives think? You think I care about a party whose whole existence has been to foment white resentment against minorities? Really? Kushiyose No Jutsu. Take it from here, Lee. > [@Lee Atwater](#): > > You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.” Thanks, Lee. And again, I’m supposed to care what these disgusting people think about people of color? I’m supposed to be embarrassed that these white supremacists think I am a caricature of black activist? The same people who believe in pizza gate? The same people whose offspring smear semen on their oreos? The same people who believe in “[Q](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-of-q-how-an-anonymous-conspiracy-monger-launched-a-movement-if-he-even-exists/2018/08/01/6d10f5b4-95a3-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html)”? Not today. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/498 "2018-08-04T04:08:03Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > (emphasis mine) > > Has it ever occurred to you that white people’s actions over the last 10 years is a “walking caricature of everything the Nation of Islam claim about white folks”? Has it occurred to you that having your fora filled with threads that demean people of color, people here are painting a “walking caricature of everything Baldwin, Coates, Oluo, DiAngelo, and DuBois claim about white folks”? Or is the caricaturing one-directional? > > In any case, you have me misunderstood. I do not care about conservatives or what conservatives think. I’ll go even further and state that after November 2016, I no longer think most conservatives and “independents” are human in the classical sense of the word. I have dehumanized them in the same way they have dehumanized people of color; the incomparable Mike Wallace - a white man - coined the phrase “The Hate that Hate produced”. It’s something like that. The plurality of white folks - from Joe the Plumber to Jane the Banker - voted for a man who referred to his own daughter as a “piece of ass” and who described his healthcare plan as “the finest health-care plan there is” but without giving any specifics. They voted for a man who claimed that you grab females by the pussy followed by “You can do anything”. They still voted for his ass. They voted and still support a man who separates children from their families, a man who routinely lies and attacks the press, and the man who continues to demean people of color for engaging in nonviolent protest against his regime. Not to he undone, white folks went to the polls and overwhelmingly supported an alleged pedophile at the polls in Alabama. > > And you think I care about a party whose use of coded language and news websites paint people of color as violent, dangerous, and unintelligent? You think I care what conservatives think? You think I care about a party whose whole existence has been to foment white resentment against minorities? Really? > > Kushiyose No Jutsu. > > Take it from here, Lee. > Thanks, Lee. > > And again, I’m supposed to care what these disgusting people think about people of color? I’m supposed to be embarrassed that these white supremacists think I am a caricature of black activist? The same people who believe in pizza gate? The same people whose offspring smear semen on their oreos? The same people who believe in “[Q](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-of-q-how-an-anonymous-conspiracy-monger-launched-a-movement-if-he-even-exists/2018/08/01/6d10f5b4-95a3-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html)”? Not today. Someone’s mad!!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/499 "2018-08-04T04:24:18Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Engage rather than shout, don’t turn against people who are actually on your side, and don’t be a walking caricature of everything the the right claims is true about black activists. …in simpler words: “just be a good black, not one of the bad ones. Shut up. Know your place”. This is the fucking pit, the place to shout and the place to rant. Huey has no obligation to “engage.” And Huey has every right to determine “who is actually on their side.” ---
**Author:** ![Huey\_Freeman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/huey_freeman/32/251_2.png) [@Huey\_Freeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huey_Freeman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/500 "2018-08-04T04:31:33Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > And by the evidence of this thread you think a constructive approach to life for a black person today is to treat “white folks” as a monolithic enemy, right? Rather than human beings. > > So you’re a fan of Robin DiAngelo. She has some insightful things to say. But it’s one thing to challenge widespread unconscious racist assumptions, to disrupt white people’s comfortable privilege; it’s quite another to make preposterous sweeping generalized accusations that alienate rather than enlighten. You give angry, ignorant, patronizing lectures, with little regard for facts or evidence, accusing all “white folks” of collective guilt; then seek to dismiss any negative reaction as white fragility, so that anyone who disagrees with you or challenges your claims is conveniently just affirming the validity of your worldview, right? > > Well, just as Carl Sagan pointed out that they _also_ laughed at Bozo The Clown, not _all_ negative reactions among “white folks” are solely attributable to white fragility. Perhaps you’re not the proud crusader that you think you are. Perhaps you’re an ignorant divisive scumbag with scant regard for facts or evidence. I feel so _fragile_ that I can’t embrace that. This merits a response, I will respond to this tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/501 "2018-08-04T05:26:36Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > The kafka trap is, as I mentioned before, white supremacist nonsense. Why? Because you can’t face the fact that you could possibly be wrong? If the only way you can win an argument is by dismissing anything that disproves your point as “white surpremacist nonsense”, then well…maybe it wasn’t such a good argument after all. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/502 "2018-08-04T05:34:52Z")
> [@Huey\_Freeman](#): > > And again, I’m supposed to care what these disgusting people think about people of color? I’m supposed to be embarrassed that these white supremacists think I am a caricature of black activist? The same people who believe in pizza gate? The same people whose offspring smear semen on their oreos? The same people who believe in “[Q](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-of-q-how-an-anonymous-conspiracy-monger-launched-a-movement-if-he-even-exists/2018/08/01/6d10f5b4-95a3-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html)”? Not today. Yes, you need to care what white people think. Because here’s the grim reality: there are 40,000,000 black people and 200,000,000 white people in the United States. You’re not going to win if you make it a fight between black people and white people. You’re not going to convert the Lee Atwaters or the white supremacists. But you need to have some white people on your side. If you keep insisting that every white person is your enemy, then you’re going to have more enemies than you can beat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611.md?page=26)