Race is universally legible and culturally significant, but *what it means* is geographically quite specific
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I’m a Very Online digital native with a decent finger on the pulse of mainstream online discussion, as well as an intrinsic fascination with some of the communities on the fringes (communists, anarchists, queer radicals, revolutionaries, redpill/tradcon ideologues, etc.)
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As a Not White person, I also sometimes get invited into dedicated spaces where people talk vulnerably (and profusely) about their frustrations with race
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In other words, I have a medium-resolution map of the territory that an old person or a white person might have a very hard time replicating And I still have no idea how white people should talk about race
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As a White person, I think the best you can hope to do is find yourself a comfortably diverse subculture, learn their orthodoxies, and be careful not to broadcast too loudly (or at all) on other wavelengths
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This is why I can’t get *that* upset with my racist old piano teacher in Missouri for somehow getting more racist in the last decade She made the same choice as my progressive white friends in SF—find your bubble, then disengage And she had a lot less mobility than they did!
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The “culture war” turned Boomer tradcons into refugees, ideological outsiders Just a couple decades ago, they were the righteous mainstream, and now everyone is (somewhat justifiably) pointing the finger at them for our problems re: race, climate, business
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And even though I think her politics are selfish and unworkable beyond her narrow, homogeneous in-group— I still *like* my racist piano teacher, and she likes me too
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Anyway, 1. We live in a society 2. Love thy neighbor 3. Maybe the real racists were the friends we made along the way
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End of conversation
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