- b.c.,
POST NO. 15,000
I've written before of the notion of Safe Spaces, that, when in reference to safe spaces for minorities, is often derided by white people who, not so coincidentally, have always enjoyed the privilege of existing within safe spaces for THEM.
In fact, as I've also written, the entire Trump campaign, the 2016 campaign and this one, his entire litany of fear mongering, rabble rousing, and hate, was and IS based and founded upon his and his constituency's fear of losing their control, their majority, their safe spaces.
The GOP's constituency is DRIVEN by that fear, even if it means continuing to empower a political party that hasn't, for all practical purposes, done a fkng THING for them.
As a point of illustration of this, on a more singular level, allow me to relate an anecdote about a conversation I once had with a white gent of similar age with whom I had (at one time) become somewhat acquainted with.
This is the same guy of whom I'd written once before, when, shortly after Katrina, he emailed me some rather racist cartoons poking fun of black Katrina victims. Needless to say I was not amused, and thus ended our... whatever.
We'd become acquainted via numerous poolside chats at a local venue, relating to no particular subject, but none of which were about social issues, race, or politics. Mind you, this... camaraderie... if you will, developed in the time after 9/11, when the country was momentarily under the illusion at least, of one united and predominant cause against one perceived foreign adversary.
As I recall, even the black administrator of the... facility... where I then worked got peevish at me for failing to wear the "colors" in solidarity with Bush's war with Iraq on the designated day.
However, as it so happened, even then I had doubts as to the real reasons behind Dubya's "mission."
Anyway, suffice it to say I had cause for no premonition as to where this gent's ideology lay with regard to race, except for one singular incident, months before the Storm, that relates to the topic at hand.
And that was when he happened to mention that he'd recently had the occasion to visit my part of the city (the East) to attend to some business he had there (he resided in Baton Rouge).
So I said, okay, and he's just sitting there smiling at me, saying noting more, and I'm looking at him like, "What?" Then he says, "There's a lot of black people there in the East." (And I'm thinking like, "Duhhh.")
But it was at that moment when I realized what had happened (and maybe then, my first inkling of something more with this guy).
Here was a white guy who'd long enjoyed the privilege of being of a majority, in a community where he was of that majority, and the perceived security (however based or not based in reality) he derived from dwelling in that particular "SAFE SPACE"
and who now had found himself in a community where he encountered drivers on the road, and people working in stores, and shoppers, and commuters, and renters, and homeowners, and joggers, and people walking pets, and working in their yards, and cutting their grass, and business owners, and church goers, and managers, and postal delivery people, and police officers, and fast food employees, managers, and customers, and bankers, and gas station operators, and families...
he found ALL OF THE SAME THING that he'd seen throughout his entire life, in his own community, with the exception that most all of them were BLACK.
And it BLEW HIS FKNG MIND.
Safe spaces...
for further reading:
A 'Safe Space' For White People, Otherwise Known As 'The Two-State Solution,' or 'Disunion As Solution' | HuffPost
https://www.afro.com/safe-space-is-for-white-people/
‘Safe Space’ is for White People | Afro
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