Racism or “Don’t worry, boy, I think of you as white.”

I think some of the most deeply racist words I have ever heard spoken to my child by an adult were “Don’t worry I think of you as white.” Both assuring them that white was the preferred color, the advantage, and the privilege, whilst denying their heritage and their journey and their lived experience as well as the color of their skin.

I had no idea this was a thing, an alleged compliment until I heard it again today, that Asians or part Asians are considered ‘all white alright’ by certain boneheaded individuals, contrary to the lived experience of Asians in the USA. Both othered and then denied their otherness. Disappeared.

There is nothing much to be done by me, I suppose, except not be an asshole, and try and love wholly and deeply and honestly as I can.

So, what is useful? What can I do to help, to support? What can I do more than I am doing? I pull people on their shit when it is safe to do so, and walk around in a constant state of horror at the state of society.

The hate and division needs healing, understanding. Perhaps it is the partly the job of the artists and the poets, not the politicians? The politicians sure have made a mess of it so far….