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NYT: Can My Children Be Friends With White People?
The New York Times ^ | 11/10/17 | Ekow N. Yankah

Posted on 11/12/2017 7:21:58 AM PST by Simon Green

My oldest son, wrestling with a 4-year-old’s happy struggles, is trying to clarify how many people can be his best friend. “My best friends are you and Mama and my brother and …” But even a child’s joy is not immune to this ominous political period. This summer’s images of violence in Charlottesville, Va., prompted an array of questions. “Some people hate others because they are different,” I offer, lamely. A childish but distinct panic enters his voice. “But I’m not different.”

It is impossible to convey the mixture of heartbreak and fear I feel for him. Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.

Meaningful friendship is not just a feeling. It is not simply being able to share a beer. Real friendship is impossible without the ability to trust others, without knowing that your well-being is important to them. The desire to create, maintain or wield power over others destroys the possibility of friendship. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dream of black and white children holding hands was a dream precisely because he realized that in Alabama, conditions of dominance made real friendship between white and black people impossible.

...

As against our gauzy national hopes, I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: identity; racist; white; whitepeople; whites
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To: Simon Green

This writer is an idiot. Children know nothing of racism...until it is taught to them.


21 posted on 11/12/2017 7:36:24 AM PST by stylecouncilor ("The future ain't what it used to be." Yogi Berra)
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To: Lurker
He can teach his kid whatever he wants. My father taught me to be vigilant around strangers, especially black male strangers. He also taught me to be extremely vigilant when you find yourself out numbered by a group of blacks. His advice has served me well for the last 47 years.
22 posted on 11/12/2017 7:36:39 AM PST by peeps36 (Obama = the skidmark on America's uunderwear)
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To: Simon Green

Even to come up with that headline, one has to be sick.


23 posted on 11/12/2017 7:36:40 AM PST by Chengdu54
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To: Simon Green

Next target: Movies like Sing Street or shows like Stranger Things perpetuate white supremacy by showing black and white kids being friends.

You heard it here first (maybe).


24 posted on 11/12/2017 7:38:03 AM PST by Chengdu54
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To: Simon Green

And, not surprisingly, the NYT printed this.

It’s disgraceful that the Charlottesville demonstrations, orchestrated by outgoing Gov. McAuliffe, have taken hold as proof of racism in America. More disgraceful that he was rewarded for that effort in the recent election.


25 posted on 11/12/2017 7:38:11 AM PST by EDINVA
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To: Simon Green

Black racism is emotionally driven, so it really is the worst. There is no logical or rational thought behind their racism.


26 posted on 11/12/2017 7:38:22 AM PST by CodeToad (CWII is coming. Arm Up! They Are!)
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To: Simon Green

Maybe she’ll teach her kid to suckle at the teat of taxes paid by whites that get used for welfare.


27 posted on 11/12/2017 7:38:41 AM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....Dirty Bob Mueller)
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To: Simon Green

Mamas don’t let your babys grow up to be liberal.


28 posted on 11/12/2017 7:38:42 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: Simon Green

Agreed. There seems to be a lot of anti-white racism from white liberals recently.


29 posted on 11/12/2017 7:39:49 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: Simon Green

Blacks need to be suspicious of other blacks long before whites.


30 posted on 11/12/2017 7:40:12 AM PST by umgud
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To: lee martell

Many minority children are first ‘imprinted’


We used to learn, “whether yellow black or white, they are precious in his site..................”


31 posted on 11/12/2017 7:40:29 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Simon Green

Maybe his children will not grow up to black intellectual, racist idiots.


32 posted on 11/12/2017 7:40:45 AM PST by Grampa Dave (It's over for the NFL. They have stage 5 Colin brain cancer, and it's terminal.)
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To: Simon Green
ekow n. yankah.
33 posted on 11/12/2017 7:41:35 AM PST by Fungi (What the hell is a fungus?)
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To: Simon Green

He can stop appropriating white culture, by trying to write in English and wearing something that is not an animal skin covering his nuts.


34 posted on 11/12/2017 7:44:11 AM PST by mindburglar (I have an above average brain stem)
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To: Simon Green
This is actually a very common discussion.

I have a family member, who married into my family, who is black. He struggles with the fact that he is black, and we treat him like family.

He admits, and has admitted to his pastor and consular, that we have never done anything but accept him. But he struggles with the fact that we are more European based races than he is. He feels like he is between betraying his race, and betraying his married into family.

One thing I have learned is that for many black people, race is the first, last, and dang near only thing they think about. It is taught in their earliest years that the only reason they fail is because of their skin color and others reactions.

He (my cousin's husband) is still trying to deal with that. I have told him, and he believes me, that my family is so blended in that the only thing we are is rednecks (my Asian cousin loves to wear cammo and speaks in a twang half the time).

We will have issues till one of two things happens. The African Americans stop playing the race card, or the European Americans really start playing. I think it is going to be the latter.

35 posted on 11/12/2017 7:44:26 AM PST by redgolum
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To: Simon Green

Remind me again the number of black on white crimes as opposed to white on black ones. The Democrats are the ones who are exacerbating the racial angst in this country. They lose one election and proceed to turn the country into a boiling cauldron of hate because they’re sore losers and will do anything to get their power back. They’re willing to destroy the nation to meet that goal.


36 posted on 11/12/2017 7:45:06 AM PST by dowcaet
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To: brianr10

I’ve got several black friends that I see every day when I walk my dog and exercise.

One loves my Shepherd, and the others I pass their house on the way to the track and we talk casually when I see them outside.

They are all very friendly. I know that they are Democrats, because I see their lawn signs at election time, and they are different then all others in the neighborhood.

I like them though. I don’t behave in a manner that is consistent with the way the I post on matters such as these.

Thinking about this makes me mad, because the media and politicians are slowly poisoning relationships such as these across the country with their racism BS.


37 posted on 11/12/2017 7:45:35 AM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
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To: Simon Green

One of my middle son’s best friends was killed in a car accident last week. We went to his funeral yesterday. My son is very white. His friend was black. They were both color blind. I took my son and daughter to the funeral which was in the middle of nowhere in Alabama. It was at a Pentecostal church. The building was packed with standing room only. We stood at the back with a small handful of other white folks who made the drive. (funeral was at a location an hour away from where the deceased lived) there were several hundred black folks and about 20 or less white folks in attendance. There had been a memorial service elsewhere the day before. Most of the deceased’s white friends attended that service. Anywho, I witnessed a lot of wonderful people at that funeral. Black families worshipping God together and celebrating the life of a loving, Christian young man.


38 posted on 11/12/2017 7:45:45 AM PST by petitfour (APPEAL TO HEAVEN)
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To: DaveA37

Too late for that, it looks like, after reading the article...


39 posted on 11/12/2017 7:46:09 AM PST by JBW1949 (I'm really PC....PATRIOTICALLY CORRECT!!!!)
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To: peeps36

No argument here. But your attitude, which mine largely mirrors, is based in facts. Were I to find myself on the west side of Chicago in the midst of a crowd of young black males I’d have real reason to fear for my safety.

That opposite situation does not attain for a young black man in Manhattan. In fact he’s most likely completely surrounded by white people every day. An even more evident fact is that he and his child are at far greater risk in a crowd of young males with the same skin color.

But we aren’t allowed to discuss that, because it’s racist to do so.

L


40 posted on 11/12/2017 7:46:49 AM PST by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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