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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: Lurker

Based on parenting boys, my guess is that this one will grow up and have numerous white friends. If this parent keeps it up by the time he is a teenager he will be acting white.

Boys are boys, black or white.


101 posted on 11/12/2017 9:07:34 AM PST by FreedomNotSafety
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To: Simon Green

“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.”

Yeah, right. Its Trumps fault the way he chooses to raise his kids (eye roll)


102 posted on 11/12/2017 9:14:44 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: Simon Green

There are a lot of damaged peopke out there.

This person is clueless.


103 posted on 11/12/2017 9:18:04 AM PST by DoughtyOne (On 11/08/16, G. H. W. Bush voted for H. Clinton. G. W. Bush left the top slot open. Any questions)
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To: BenLurkin

He is not a “small person”. He is a hate filled bigot.


104 posted on 11/12/2017 9:20:48 AM PST by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as well say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!")
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To: lowbridge

By EKOW N. YANKAHJULY 15, 2013

THE Trayvon Martin verdict is frustrating, fracturing, angering and predictable. More than anything, for many of us, it is exhausting. Exhausting because nothing could bring back our lost child, exhausting because the verdict, which should have felt shocking, arrived with the inevitability that black Americans know too well when criminal law announces that they are worth less than other Americans.


105 posted on 11/12/2017 9:21:26 AM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Simon Green
Classic stereotyping of white Trump people by a black man.

"Stereotyping" isn't used nearly as often as it used to be.

106 posted on 11/12/2017 9:28:58 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (Kill: NFL, Hollywood, NBA, BLM, CAIR, Antifa, SPLC, CNN, ESPN, NPR, TWITTER, FACEBOOK)
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To: Simon Green

One of the racist moron Obama, community organizers.


107 posted on 11/12/2017 9:30:28 AM PST by databoss
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To: raybbr
Can my grandkids be friends with white liberals?
If they do, will they get sex diseases, poor grades, and frequently resort to violence against the weak ,and lie a lot?
White Liberals are getting set up to get another waxing in the 2018 election.
They can all go take a knee.
TWB
108 posted on 11/12/2017 9:30:38 AM PST by TWhiteBear (H)
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To: Simon Green

Dear Mr. Racist.....don’t forget to tell your kids about hating the cops, or was that the FIRST thing you told them?


109 posted on 11/12/2017 9:44:00 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: dowcaet

https://www.reddit.com/r/StumpSheet/comments/6ec3z1/fake_hate_crimes_official/\

2017

(539) Black man spray painted “Go home nigger boy”, “Whites only”, a backward swastika and other slurs on his own car at Kansas State University. (Archive) 11/1/2017

(538) Black man spray painted swastikas on several Bay Area Rapid Transit System train stations. (Archive) 10/27/2017

(537) Black man spray painted a swastika on a trash cart at a residence hall at the University of Maryland. (Archive) 9/27/2017

(536) Black cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO was responsible for racist graffiti which read “Go home nigger” near the dorms of five black students. Investigators found he did it to get out of trouble relating to other misconduct at the school. (Archive) 9/25/2017

(535) White man lied about being stabbed by a black man because his haircut made him look like a neo-Nazi. Police found he had accidentally cut himself and made the story up. (Archive) 8/16/2017


110 posted on 11/12/2017 9:53:54 AM PST by GOPJ (https://www.reddit.com/r/StumpSheet/comments/6ec3z1/fake_hate_crimes_official/)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

The author is the boy’s father.


111 posted on 11/12/2017 9:55:59 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
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To: Simon Green

Don’t worry, Mama. Most black children are growing up assuming they shouldn’t be friends with white people. It’s obvious. The Black people who dare to befriend white people are the exception now.


112 posted on 11/12/2017 9:57:21 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Same comments, only the effects I described would likely be stronger! Just like Dad.


113 posted on 11/12/2017 9:58:11 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine (White is the new Black.)
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To: petitfour

It’s the great thing about sports. My son is still a posse with his old teammates. They are multi race multi culture. It’s very nice. Not everyone has that. I wonder how it will stay when they get old enough to start marrying.


114 posted on 11/12/2017 10:01:15 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: Simon Green

No, white people will sucker punch and rob you. Wait,,,,,


115 posted on 11/12/2017 10:10:50 AM PST by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: Simon Green

This is just more media-manufactured racial discord.


116 posted on 11/12/2017 10:13:46 AM PST by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: chris37

“NYT: Can My Children Be Friends With White People?”

With that attitude...not this one.


117 posted on 11/12/2017 10:39:48 AM PST by Bonemaker
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To: Charles Martel

Claiming racism covers up significant cultural failures.


118 posted on 11/12/2017 10:41:26 AM PST by ActresponsiblyinVA
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To: Pearls Before Swine

OK.


119 posted on 11/12/2017 10:54:37 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
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To: PeterPrinciple
We used to learn, “whether yellow black or white, they are precious in his site sight..................”

There, fixed it fer yuh!

Regards,

120 posted on 11/12/2017 11:06:28 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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