# Living while black in America

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611>\
**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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 528

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**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 5, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/528 "2018-08-05T14:36:18Z")

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> [@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.

White folks - liberal, independent, and conservative alike - both worship at the altars of individualism and objectivity. Briefly, individualism is the idea that we are unique and stand in contrast to our demographic groups; and objectivity, is the idea that we care capable of adjudicating matters free of all or most bias. Anyway, the thrust of your observation is true insofar as I am deliberately breaking the cardinal rule of individualism by generalizing.\* I am generalizing\* and never tried to hide or deny this fact; nor am I trying to change and hearts and minds about racism. I generalize because, in my view (and others may disagree), white people are predictable (See Matthew 7:16). On the flip-side, I am sensitive to and understand that my generalizations may be intolerable, uncomfortable, cause defensiveness or anger. The good news is that I’m only posting in this thread. You won’t see me in the neatly-trimmed suburbs of Great Debates or Elections or me engaging posters in other threads in this folder (not even the [white supremacist thread using coded language](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=859372) to complain about people of color and minorities engaging in nonviolent protest). I’m just here.

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