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Calling out “White People”
I was on a bus in Seattle the other day sitting next to someone I met that day and will likely never meet again. We had gotten into a conversation about each other’s religious backgrounds. He went first.
“Yeah, back home I went to a Lutheran church [I’m not sure of the denomination, but it was something liturgical]. It sucked. I don’t like traditional stuff, and that’s all it was. Everyone was super old and like 90 percent white.”
“What was that?”
“Oh, just — everyone was white. It was terrible.”
Mind you, this is coming from a young, white man.
The exchange was weird, to say the least. I had met this guy not two hours ago, and he was already polemicizing about the evils of the white race. Maybe it was my fault for bringing up religion. I should know that topic can get contentious, and in today’s world, religious ideals stretch ever-farther beyond any reasonable understanding of any sacred text outside of The Communist Manifesto. But it still doesn’t seem appropriate to voice your disdain for a particular group to someone you’ve just met.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I tend to be a little less brazen with my prejudices. Don’t get me wrong, I have my share of likely-unfair biases (to those of you who don’t: you do), but I cringe at the thought of sharing them with all but my closest friends, much less someone I barely know. Perhaps this is a new strategy for the left: strike first and strike emphatically.
I can’t help but wonder what he would have said if I had replied, “Yeah, my old church sucked. There were too many young, black people there. It was awful.” If he were reasonable, he likely would have reacted with scorn. So why does the think it fine to be not only racist but ageist, too? I know there’s supposedly no such thing as “reverse racism” (really, there isn’t, because racism is just that: racism), but even most leftists wouldn’t deny the ageism critique of this young man’s sentiment.
This type of story isn’t new and it certainly isn’t unique. Pile it on with the rest of the accounts of segregation on college campuses in the form of safe spaces, public anti-Semitic and anti-Christian statements from prominent left-wing individuals, and descriptions from oh, say, a sitting US president of “typical white people.” I still think it’s important to write about these. If a single person reads one of these stories, sees themselves in it, and begins to change their ways, the redundancy will have been worth it.
Cross-posted from my blog, One Restless Heart
Published in Culture
English cuisine! You might remember them from such culinary delights as Bubble & Squeak, and Toad in a Hole.
Indeed, I’ve eaten Bubble & Squeak:
It’s the patties on the top right. Sort of tastes like a hash brown patty, but less crispy and with other veggies mixed in.
Yes. Mostly cabbage. The question has always been whether “bubble and squeak” is just the name, or a description of its effect on one’s digestive system.
Or all of the above.
“Hant, you beat me to it…