Aidan,

Your argument that white people need “skin in the game” if we are ever to dismantle our cage of wire superiority is fantastic.

Were it not such a cliche, I’d say my mind was blown. Specifically, the concept of “what’s in it for me.”

The absolute unlocking move is the idea that even (especially?) white people have no desire to live up to that which is required of them under the status quo of superiority.

And to be honest, I’ve long believed what you state regarding the uselessness of individual opinion regarding race. My standard bit for this is — since I cannot independently verify any specific mea culpa is true, meaning, I cannot measure it the way I can their height, what do I care about what they say?

I never saw the inherent checkmate that’s there, the endless blame taking and deference required — which means you’d have to be some kind of masochist to seek it out.

The result is that we all know the code. Race is like Fight Club, and the same rule applies — you don’t discuss it. While I cannot frame how your calls to action sound, I see that is a need for more reading on my part.

Pardon the novel. But this just resonated. My best friend and I — even we have to “third rail” the race thing, mostly because I can hear the anxiety in his voice — about a topic that hardly applies to him as a second generation Russian Jew. His people were too busy either surviving or not yet being considered white — he literally doesn’t “rate” his angst. He is too recent an arrival to White Land. But I digress.

Um, thanks for this one. Good work.

Michael