When other white people talk about "healing the racial divide" ...

[LuckyTheDog]

I usually hear this: "Why can't those black people just get over it and shut up already?"

Is that true for anybody else?

[whatthehey]

1. Not often no

When I've, all too rarely, heard statements like that it's been meant genuinely. Any attempt in that direction is going to need both goodwill and a willingness to accept bona fides from all parts of that divide, is it not?

Anyone thinking what you propose, outside politicians bound by perceived rules of acceptable statements perhaps, is unlikely to make such statements in the first place.

[LuckyTheDog]

2. You don't know my relatives

"It's the blacks who are the REAL racists, dontcha know!" - A statement often made explicitly or implicitly when my family discusses race issues.

[whatthehey]

7. True, but do they care about healing the divide in the first place then?

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. Authenticity isn't the problem.

I think a lot of white people authentically want to live in a society they feel is equal. The trouble is many of them, no matter how well-intentioned they are, wouldn't recognize an equal society if it came up behind them and bit them on the ass.

Making inroads to racial harmony will require white people to take a long hard look at their privilege, and that's something we've largely been reluctant to do.

[whatthehey]

11. Which leaves us with frustratingly few options

I'm no wild eyed SJW, but neither am I blind enough to think I am not granted advantages throughout life in ways both important and trivial by having white skin in a white skin-dominated nation. Surely there are people more deeply involved and informed in the intricacies, but I have no problem accepting the idea.

But what's the next step for those many millions in my shoes? The basically equality minded, reasonably self-aware if not particularly expert type? How does acknowledgement of the advantage of white skin translate into getting rid of it? I'd make a terrible activist if I tried (some wouldn't admittedly, but it's not something everyone can be by any stretch). Most people in this bucket generally correct and deprecate overt racism where they encounter it, and are aware of their/our own latent biases and do what's needed to correct them, but none of those things are going to do much to promote true racial equality and harmony. What's the way for private citizens to actually address white privilege after that long hard look?

[treestar]

3. I doubt that

Any white person using those words would be a liberal.

Conservatives don't want to heal the racial divide. They want it to continue because they think they can feel superior. Anyone with the shut up and get over it attitude would be a conservative. They are the ones that posture that everything is already equal now, there is a black President, therefore no more complaints are to be entertained.

[uponit7771]

4. Its basically a platitude, we know the issue is the near impunity cops get related to killing humans

... and a small enough number of them take advantage of this.

[Scootaloo]

5. I always hear "Look how enlightened I am, please pat my ass and tell me I'm a good person."

Maybe 'cause the "racial divide" is spoken of as if it's like a tornado or plague of locusts or something. Like it's just there, some unalterable but regrettable aspect of nature that you can feel bad about but not actually do anything about.

[loyalsister]

6. Yes

It puts the responsibility for stopping the behavior of perpetrators on the shoulders of the victims, and I think it is a way for white people to absolve themselves of the racism that is built into our system.

[Shandris]

9. I think anyone who truly doesn't want to heal the racial divide is my explicit opponent.

Why? Because they're the ones perpetuating this hatred for the profit of a few and their own sick, twisted, demented sense of 'justice', corrupted from a meaningful concept to a commercial byword for marketing identities, under the guise of 'caring'.

Fortunately, I don't need to hurt, threaten, harm, maim, intimidate, or kill my opponents. I simply need to outlast them. You won't win, hate mongers. In fact, you've already lost, as you've lost touch with your own humanity.

((All uses of 'you' are in the generic sense and are not explicitly directed at any particular member of DU.))

[Blaukraut]

10. Or worse. "Those two black guys had it coming"

I kid you not. This was couched in a request to 'work together' and get beyond liberal and conservative so we can avoid anarchy and fix the problem. This family member basically wrote an entire screed about Alton Sterling having been a registered pedophile with a huge rap sheet, blah blah. Insinuating, of course, that Sterling deserved to die. Castile "should have listened to the cop and keep his hands up". Again, insinuating that it wasn't the cop's fault because "the guy was too stupid to listen".

Oh, and of course blaming Obama for being "wishy washy and weak, and why is he calling for gun control again?" when made remarks about the Dallas shooting.

After all that, the family member asks if we can bridge the divide and work together. How??? We are worlds apart!!