Some advice for white folks

If you're a white person some of whose best friends are black, I will use the news hook of African American History Month to offer some advice. Starting now, try to actually get to know at least one of your black friends. I mean really, personally. Find an opportunity to have a candid discussion about something important to him or her. By "discussion," I mean that, mostly, you need to listen and let your friend talk. Avoid the temptation to blurt out what you think, and certainly avoid the stupidity of telling your black friend what he or she "should" think. Or what they "really have to understand" about white people.

This is not a short-term task, or anything along the lines of gallantly celebrating Take A Negro To Lunch Day. For one thing, your friend may not want to let you in. Or you may feel punked as soon as you hear something that you'd prefer not to think about. This endeavor is not one in which you call the shots. But I strongly suggest that you try it anyway. Shut up, listen, and learn.

Why? Not simply to be noble or to become a better person. But because you need to, Caucasoid. It is of the utmost importance to your future. You have a lot to learn. Because of this. Click on the link. Read the article. Then read it again. And again. Until you really understand it. Then click through the links in the post and read those, too.

Here's the issue: if the Congress doesn't start jailing Executive Branch criminals for Contempt of Congress soon, and start impeachment proceedings against any senior Justice Department appointee who refuses to impartially enforce the laws of this land, then you and I no longer live in a democracy. The U.S. Constitution no longer means anything insofar as your civil liberties (i.e., Civil Rights) are concerned. You have none, if that's what the Justice Department, or its private-sector designee, decrees. Of course, this has pretty much always been Standard Operating Procedure for the application of laws to African Americans, so they have "institutional expertise" that the rest of us don't have a clue about.

White people do not understand this, though. We deny it. Very few white people, psychologically, can afford to even contemplate the oppression of blacks too deeply. Directly and indirectly, white people in America always have been beneficiaries of that oppression. But now, whether you believe it or not, your lily white complexion guarantees you no protection against arbitrary execution of the law. No white person will ever know what it is like to be a "nigger," but every one of us could benefit from earnestly trying to understand what it must be like. Because that is exactly what we all are now in the eyes of the Executive Branch. And your African American friend may see fit to share some insights on the subject with you, if you're lucky. And if she does, you'd better listen.