I have said this before, but I can be an asshole sometimes. I can rationalize it, as anyone with talent can rationalize anything, but that is the naked truth.
In my current living situation, I have a lot of black people around me. None of them scare me because they are ordinary, working people just trying to make it like me.
I will say, though, that I do get why black people feel oppressed sometimes. I was talking with a black guy in the bar today. He was the only black guy there, and I could just tell he was trying to blend, trying to belong. We had a nice conversation about Illinois football and basketball, and where he was from. Turns out I had driven through there earlier in the year.
In my comments on race, I want to be clear that there is one burning idea: if you are going to claim you are trying to improve the world, get the fucking thing right. Do it right, or get the fuck out of the way and let someone else lead.
The current people speaking for black Americans are not only not getting it right, they are causing an INCREASE in suffering. This suffering is very real. It is tangible. It is tears set in stone and forgotten and expressed in self destructive anger directed at they know not who. It is tears cried, and unpacified. It is fear, pervasive fear, inescapable fear, eternal fear, for which there is no ready solution.
I can be cold, but I am not cold. I want these problems solved, and it infuriates me to see lies told to cover up incompetence and indifference.