Blood-Deep Denial
Here’s what I learned from yesterday:

That, for the most part, liberal and progressive whites think that because they’re liberal and progressive, that automatically means they’re anti-racist and pro-black.

They don’t think they have to do any self-inspection or any work to become anti-racist and pro-black. They think that simply by not being conservative, they’ve done all the work they need to.

What I’ve discovered, however, is that white liberals and progressives are just as racist as their conservative counterparts, but are in a far deeper, nearly impenetrable denial about it.

Yesterday, white people calling themselves liberal and progressive supporters of Bernie Sanders came into posts that specifically outlined the ways in which white liberals and progressives could be racist ACTED PRECISELY AS THE POST OUTLINED and seemed not to notice or care. Or seemed to think that the actions of the Black Lives Matter activists justified the ensuing racism.

Post after post of racist ire all while denying that there was any racism at all.

A tiny handful of conscious white people called them out about it, but they didn’t give a shit because they thought being liberal and progressive is like a Get Out of Racism Free badge that affords them the right not to entertain any such criticism.

I now completely understand how racism remains a structural feature in the United States: the majority of the white people who call themselves the allies of black people and imagine themselves anti-racist advocates are in fact nothing of the sort and there’s absolutely no way to convince them that’s the case.

They believe their racist characteristics are anti-racist.

What’s the difference between a conservative racist and a liberal racist?

The conservative racist knows they’re racist even if they deny it publicly. The liberal racist’s denial, however, is blood-deep.