White People Are Douche Bags

And I should know. I've been one for the past 25 years.

Why is it that, whenever the subject of race comes up in a public forum, white people freak the fuck out. If they're blessed with the gift of eloquence, then they can dance around the issue enough to make people they've taken a stand. But if not, well then, they get into situations that reveal the fact that we, in America, are still very racist.

I have, for some time, posted on Talkinbroadway.com. It is a great source of information on the New York theater scene. It is also, I've come to find, racist. That's not to say that all of the posters are racists. Far from it. But there are a lot of statements and opinions offered that, at their cores, rely on racist assumptions. Often, such comments go unchecked. In a move that's misguided and not, I've take it upon myself to play racism police at Talkinbroadway. Sometimes, I call people out when I shouldn't. And sometimes, my suspicions are dead on. I just loathe the fact that people say inflammatory things without being held accountable. So. Weak.

The major blessing and downside of the internet: anonymity.

Take, for example, a recent discussion about censorship. Someone--a meathead with whom I've tangled before--asked something to the effect of "Is there good and bad censorship?" I said, no way. Well, somewhere down the line, another presumably white poster said that a white person could get shot for calling someone a n-----, to which I responded: "... because all black people have guns?"

I never got a satisfying response. Then, tonight, I asked another poster if s/he was white, because s/he'd written an especially vitriolic review of Passing Strange. Well, the poster freaked out and called me a racist. Finally, the poster answered my original question--are you white?--with: "No. Yes. No. Yes."

Weak.

I think we whites are born into a culture that makes us racist. Some less than others, sure. But we all have to recognize this. Talk about it in public. Let other people know that we see the elephant wearing a white hood that's standing in the middle of the room. It's the only way to initiate a productive conversation about race in this country.

I don't think a lot of white people have any concept of the black experience in America. On the one hand, I feel like it's a human thing--that level on which we can all relate despite color or gender or sexytime habits. And on the other, I know that a lot of shit has happened and continues to happen that makes it hard for different types of people to want to understand one another. But that want is something that we all have, no matter how hard we try to repress it. The desire to connect is universal. So let's try to find the common ground and celebrate the parts that aren't the same.