All white people are racists...or "white fragility" ??

[Rhondazvous]

Quite so. Another "must read" author, if you have not yet done so, is James W. Loewen, whose Lies My Teacher Told Me is one of the most important books I have ever read (he's a history professor, and he examines the six main high school textbooks for the ways in which they whitewash what actually happened in American history, by comparing what the books say to what the primary literature says, mainly on subjects of our genocide of the Native Americans and our treatment of African Americans throughout our history).

But in this case, your subject is something he talks about in Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, and as horrifying as our "sundown town" history (which continues, as he documents) was to read about, it made my skin crawl (I was in a prison when I read it) to learn that the rural counties in which my prisons were always located could count the minority population in the prison as part of their census, while paying nothing to them, for purposes of federal funding and other programs, even for avoiding being penalized for being racial exclusion zones.

I was in luck and able to download audio versions of both books. so I will be able to read them along with the 0Diamond books. Did you see my replay to your post before where you mentioned Jared Diamond?

I think if we focus on specifics like this it will open the door to public discourse of what really concerns us more than if we just say we want to talk about racism. I imagine White people see that the same way a man might react if his woman just comes in out of the blue and says, "We need to talk about our relationship." He doesn't know where this conversation will go, what the rules are or what is expected of him. All he knows is his woman is uhappy and it is somehow his fault. But specific, undeniable conditions of racial inequality are something people can talk about with a view to resolution. Knowamsnae?