I wonder ...

[Kweli4Real]

If people pause to consider how offensive it is to tell me that what I see and what I experience daily, really doesn't exist ... or, at most, doesn't really exist to the extent that I think it does?

I wonder if people pause to consider that they are doing me no great favor by telling me what I experience is (somehow) lessened because "not all of us are that way", especially when the next words out their mouth is an argument that what I'm experiencing really doesn't exist? Isn't that an internally inconsistent argument, i.e., it doesn't exist, but I'm not that way?

I wonder if people even pause to consider?

[Karenina]

1. No.

I call it the "protection racket." It is in their interest to deny the validity of your perceptions and experience.

[Number23]

2. No. I don't think that any sense of awareness will ever be as strong as the sense of denial

The need to cry "but we're not ALL like that" takes precedence for too many. And some are just assholes who know that what you're experiencing is racism and either don't give a damn or think that you (or whoever the person of color is) deserve it.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Unfortunately, no

for too many, if THEY don't see it, it doesn't exist, which is very convenient because they CAN'T see it. So it's a nice self-fulfilling cycle.

But, they'll scream bloody murder if it goes in the other direction--then they'll see it very well.