Are Blacks & Whites TRULY equal?

[Kevin]

Just to clear it up before anyone starts thinking this, I am not racist and I believe it's wrong to be racist... And I'm from Kentucky, so that's good xD

In the past 100+ years, the U.S. has come a long way when it comes to racism. Went from Blacks being slaves and saw and thought of as property, to them being free but still had a lot of restrictions, to segregation and the racism dramatically lowering, to where we are now, a minimal of racists... Well, at least people who admit it.
But are Blacks (I don't say African American, cause MOST aren't) and Whites TRULY equal?
When it comes to political terms, I do believe so, unless there is like some weird law or act I don't know about, then yes. But socially, NO.

I don't understand how it's like Blacks and Mexicans (for example) can say certain things and it be fine, but if a white person says it, its racist... Like for example, the "N word". I'm not saying that I should be able to go around and call every black person I see one, but I just don't see why Blacks can go around and say it to even a white guy and it be fine, but if I say it, ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE OH SHIT RACIST (most likely). I know that is was an offensive term used a while back, but I thought the U.S. was past this... People really shouldn't care, it's just a word... I mean come on, someone calls a white person Honky, it's fine, or Cracker, but white's can't say the "N word"... Now according to South Park, white people just don't understand, but that's not the point... Lol wow I can't believe I said that much on it...

Then again, like certain jokes... White people can't really say SOME black jokes, but blacks can say like any white joke (even if they ALL suck...)... I just find this stuff amazing.



Now, I am NOT saying that all whites should go around calling blacks the "N word" freely and whenever, because that would just start conflict, and it would kind of ruin the word, but it should not not be ok if a white person does, or says a black joke or something like that... Know what I mean? American society is weird...

[curiosityandthecat]

Are Blacks & White truly equal? Intrinsically, yes. In society, no.

There's an area of scholarship called Critical Race Theory. Sounds like you might be interested in it. There's a subset called Whiteness Studies. You may be interested in that, too. Actually, judging by your post, I'd say you should read this article: White Whine by Tim Wise. It's not a very long read. In fact, I'll put it here in a spoiler tag. I suggest every White person reads it as it addresses a lot of the feelings White people have (a number of which you have expressed in your post).

[spoiler:1kf04r4a]White Whine: Reflections on the Brain-Rotting Properties of Privilege

April, 20 2004
By Tim Wise

To truly understand a nation, a culture, or its people, it helps to know what they take for granted.

After all, sometimes the things that go unspoken are more powerful than the spoken word, if for no other reason than the tendency of unspoken assumptions to reinforce core ways of thinking, feeling and acting, without ever having to be verbalized (and thus subjected to challenge) at all.

What's more, when people take certain things for granted, anything that goes against the grain of what they perceive as "normal" will tend to stand out like a sore thumb, and invite a hostility that seems reasonable, at least to those dispensing it, precisely because their unspoken assumptions have gone uninterrogated for so long.

Thus, every February I encounter people who are apoplectic at the thought of Black History Month, and who insist with no sense of irony or misgiving that there should be no such thing, since, after all, there is no White History Month--a position to which they can only adhere because they have taken for granted that "American history" as told to them previously was comprehensive and accurate, as opposed to being largely the particular history of the dominant group.

In other words, the normalcy of the white narrative, which has rendered every month since they popped out of their momma's wombs White History Month, escapes them, and makes the efforts of multiculturalists seem to be the unique break with an otherwise neutral color-blindness.

Sorta' like those who e-mail me on a semi-regular basis to insist, as if they have just stumbled upon a truth of unparalleled profundity, that there should be an Ivory Magazine to balance out Ebony, or that we need a White Entertainment Television network to balance out BET, or a NAAWP to balance out the NAACP.

Again, these dear souls ignore what is obvious to virtually all persons of color but which remains unseen by those whose reality gets to be viewed as the norm: namely, that there are already two Ivory Magazines--Vogue and Cosmopolitan; that there are several WETs, which just so happen to go by the names of CBS, NBC and ABC; and that the Fortune 500, U.S. Congress and Fraternal Orders of Police are all doing a pretty good job holding it down for us white folks on the organizational front. Just because the norm is not racially-named, doesn't mean it isn't racialized.

Likewise the ongoing backlash against affirmative action, by those who seem to believe that opportunity would truly be equal in the absence of these presumably unjust efforts to ensure access to jobs and higher education for persons of color.

We are to believe that before affirmative action things were fine, and that were such efforts abolished now, things would return to this utopic state of affairs: to hell with the persistent evidence that people of color continue to face discrimination in employment, housing, education and all other institutional settings in the U.S.

So if the University of Michigan gives applicants of color twenty points on a 150-point admission scale, so as to promote racial diversity and balance out the disadvantages to which such students are often subjected in their K-12 schooling experience, that is seen as unfair racial preference.

But when the same school gives out 16 points to kids from the lily-white Upper Peninsula, or four points for children of overwhelmingly white alumni, or ten points for students who went to the state's "top" schools (who will be disproportionately white), or 8 points for those who took a full slate of Advanced Placement classes in high schools (which classes are far less available in schools serving students of color), this is seen as perfectly fair, and not at all racially preferential.

What's more, the whites who received all those bonus points due to their racial and class position will not be thought of by anyone as having received unearned advantages, in spite of the almost entirely ascriptive nature of the categories into which they fell that qualified them for such bonuses. No matter their "qualifications," it will be taken for granted that any white student at a college or University belongs there.

This is why Jennifer Gratz, the lead plaintiff in the successful "reverse discrimination" suit against Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action policy, found it a supreme injustice that a few dozen black, Latino and American Indian students were admitted ahead of her, despite having lower SATs and grades; but she thought nothing of the fact that more than 1400 other white students also were admitted ahead of her and her co-plaintiffs, despite having lower scores and grades.

"Lesser qualified" whites are acceptable, you see, while "lesser qualified" people of color must be eliminated from their unearned perches of opportunity. This is the kind of racist logic that people like Gratz, who now heads up the state?s anti-affirmative action initiative with the financial backing of Ward Connerly, find acceptable.

This kind of logic also explains the effort of whites at Roger Williams University to start a "white scholarship fund," on the pretense that scholarships for students of color are unfair and place whites at a disadvantage.

This, despite the unmentioned fact that about 93 percent of all college scholarship money goes to whites; despite the fact that students of color at elite and expensive colleges come from families with about half the average income of whites; despite the fact that there are scholarships for pretty much every kind of student under the sun, including children of Tupperware dealers, kids whose parents raise horses, kids who are left-handed, kids whose families descend from the founding fathers: you name it, and there's money available for it.

While there are plenty of whites unable to afford college, the fault for this unhappy reality lies not with minority scholarships, but rather with the decisions of almost exclusively white University elites to raise the price of higher education into the stratosphere, to the detriment of most everyone.

But to place blame where it really belongs, on rich white people, would be illogical. After all, we take it for granted that one day we too might be wealthy, and we wouldn?t want others to question our decisions and prerogatives come that day either.

Better to blame the dark-skinned for our hardship, since we can take it for granted that they're powerless to do anything about it.

Whites, as it turns out, take most everything for granted in this country; which makes perfect sense, because dominant groups usually have that privilege.

We take for granted that we won't be racially profiled even when members of our group engage in criminality at a disproportionate rate, whether the crime is corporate fraud, serial killing, child molestation, abortion clinic bombings or drunk driving. And indeed we won't be.

We take it for granted that our terrorism won't result in whites as a group being viewed with generalized suspicion. So Tim McVeigh represents only Tim McVeigh, while Mohammed Atta gets to serve as a proxy for every other person who either has his name or follows a prophet of that name.

We take it for granted that our dishonesty will be viewed in purely individualistic terms, while the dishonesty of others will result in aspersions being cast upon the entire group from which they come.

Thus, Jayson Blair's deceptions at the New York Times provoke howls of indignation at any effort to provide opportunity to journalists of color--because after all, diversity and quality are proven by this one man's exploits to be incompatible--but Jack Kelley's equally egregious fabrications and fraud at USA Today fails to prompt calls for an end to hiring white guys as reporters, or for scrutinizing them more carefully, or for closing down whatever avenues of opportunity have helped keep the profession so white for so long.

We take it for granted that we will never be viewed as one of those dreaded "special interest" groups, precisely because whatever serves our interests is presumed universal.

So, for example, while politicians who pursue the support of black, Latino, gay or other "minority" voters are said to be pandering to special interests, those who bend over backwards to secure the backing of NASCAR dads and soccer moms, whose racial composition is as self-evident as it is unmentioned, are said to be politically savvy and merely trying to connect with "normal folks."

We take it for granted that "classical music" is a perfectly legitimate term for what really amounts to one particular classical form (mostly European orchestral and piano concerto music), ignoring that there are, indeed, classical forms of all musical styles, as well as their more contemporary versions.

We take it for granted that the only controversy regarding Jesus is whether or not he was killed by Jews or Romans; or whether the depiction of his execution by Mel Gibson is too violent for children, all the while ignoring a much larger issue, which is why does Gibson (and for that matter every other white filmmaker or artist in the history of the faith) feel the need to make Jesus white: something he surely could not have been and was not, with all due apology to Michelangelo, Constantine, Pat Robertson, and the producers of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

That the only physical descriptions of Jesus in the Bible indicate that he had feet the color of burnt brass, and hair like wool, poses a slight problem for Gibson and other followers of the white Jesus hanging in their churches, adorning their crucifixes (if Catholic), and gracing the Christmas cards they send each December.

It is the same problem posed by the anthropological evidence concerning the physical appearance of first century Jews from that part of Northern Africa we prefer to call the "Middle East" (and why is that I wonder?). Namely, Jesus did not look like a long-haired version of my Ashkenazi Jewish, Eastern European great-grandfather in his prime.

But to even bring this up is to send most white Christians (and sadly, even many of color) into fits, replete with assurances that "it doesn't matter what Jesus looked like, it only matters what he did."

Which is all fine and good, until you realize that indeed it must matter to them what Jesus looked like; otherwise, they wouldn't be so averse to presenting him as the man of color he most assuredly was: a man dark enough to guarantee that were he to come back tomorrow, and find himself on the wrong side of New York City at the wrong time of night, reaching for his keys or his wallet in the presence of the Street Crimes Unit, he'd be dispatched far more expeditiously than was done at Golgotha 2000 years ago.

But never fear: we needn?t grapple with that because we can merely take it for granted that Jesus had to look like us, as did Adam and Eve, and as does God himself. And indeed, most whites believe this to be true, as proven by every single picture Bible for kids made by a white person, all of which present these figures in such a way.

Consider the classic and widely distributed Robert Maxwell Bible Series for children, popularly known as the "blue books," which are found in virtually every pediatrician and OBGYN's office in the U.S. In Volume I, readers learn (at least visually speaking) that the Garden of Eden was in Oslo: a little-known fact that will stun Biblical scholars to be sure.

It would all be quite funny were it not so incontestably insane, so pathological in terms of the scope of our nuttiness. What else, after all, can explain the fact that when a New Jersey theatre company put on a passion play a few years ago with a black actor in the lead role, they received hundreds of hateful phone calls and even death threats for daring to portray Jesus as anyone darker than, say, Shaun Cassidy?

What else but a tenuous (at best) grip on reality can explain the quickness with which many white Americans ran around after 9/11 saying truly stupid shit like "now we know what it means to be attacked for who we are?"

Now we know? Hell, some folks always knew what that was like, though their pain and suffering never counted for much in the eyes of the majority.

What else but delusion on a scale necessitating medication could lead one to say--as two whites did on CNN in the wake of the first O.J. Simpson verdict--that they now realized everything they had been told about the American justice system being fair was a lie? Now they realized it! See the theme here?

That's what privilege is, for all those who constantly ask me what I mean when I speak of white privilege. It's the ability to presume that your reality is the reality; that your experiences, if white, are universal, and not particular to your racial identity.

It's the ability to assume that you belong and that others will presume that too; the ability to define reality for others, and expect that definition to stick (because you have the power to ensure that it becomes the dominant narrative).

And it's the ability to ignore all evidence to the contrary, claim that you yourself are the victim, and get everyone from the President to the Supreme Court to the average white guy on the street to believe it.

It is Times New Roman font, one inch margins, left hand justified. In other words, it is the default position on the computer of American life. And it has rendered vast numbers of its recipients utterly incapable of critical thought.

Only by rebelling against it, and insisting on our own freedom from the mental straightjacket into which we have been placed as whites by this system, can we hope to regain our full humanity, and be of any use as allies to people of color in their struggle against racism

Tim Wise is an antiracist activist, essayist and father. He can be reached at timjwise@msn.com. Death threats, while neither appreciated nor desired, will be graded for form, content and originality. [/spoiler:1kf04r4a]

Race issues in the United States are unique and extraordinarily complex. The "racism" you're talking about is actually "bigotry." Racism is a system of power, while bigotry is ignorant, aggressive and illogical prejudice and hatred.

I know I've used this before, but the South Park episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson wherein Stan's dad is on Wheel of Fortune and gets "N _ G G E R S" wrong is a great social commentary on the (still very real) tension between Blacks and Whites. As Stan and Token say at the end:

Stan: "Dude, I get it now. I don't get it."
Token: "Now you get it."

[chuff]

Being a former racist, I can completely relate with where you're coming from.

There are plenty of inconsistencies like these.. Affirmative action is a policy that makes the playing field less level, in the minorities' favor, blacks have their own sections for books in the bookstore, their own magazines, TV channel, yet none of these natural segregations are looked down upon.

Plus, it's pretty noticeable that, given the choice, they will congregate together and separate themselves.. I can't tell you how much empirical evidence I've gathered from simply living and going to public places that they naturally section themselves off from the other groups.. in fact most races do this, except for whites, because for us it is now culturally taboo.

For them to be proud of the fact that they were born black is to be lauded and commended, open the champagne!
But for one of us to be proud of the fact that we were born white is an atrocity and could get you a prison sentence if you aren't careful.

It's very much inconsistent and wrong in the current system (and I speak for America here). Racial quotas and affirmative action make it impossible not to take race into account when making decisions (which is a practical definition of racism).

In striving for equality, we've enforced its opposite.

[VanReal]

I'm not sure this is as much about equality as it is a glaring difference between cultures and evidence that the races are still divided, even if only by themselves.

My son had a baby sitter from Trinidad years ago that did not understand the black white thing in America.  She was black her neighbor was white and they called her "Auntie".  The fact that we were so different from one another here in the States was confusing to her.

I look around Dallas and you can drive through a neighborhood and see that we've even moved to neighborhoods with the same races.  There is an area that is primarily asian, another that's black, another that's white, and others are Mexican.  Of course you go one block you have another set of people.  My neighborhood is actually very mixed in race and ages and we all do just fine.  We are all still very different, doesn't really have anything to do with equality but rather the fact that we don't see ourselves as Americans but rather identify with our races first, as we do others.

[chuff]

I'm not sure this is as much about equality as it is a glaring difference between cultures and evidence that the races are still divided, even if only by themselves.

My son had a baby sitter from Trinidad years ago that did not understand the black white thing in America.  She was black her neighbor was white and they called her "Auntie".  The fact that we were so different from one another here in the States was confusing to her.

I look around Dallas and you can drive through a neighborhood and see that we've even moved to neighborhoods with the same races.  There is an area that is primarily asian, another that's black, another that's white, and others are Mexican.  Of course you go one block you have another set of people.  My neighborhood is actually very mixed in race and ages and we all do just fine.  We are all still very different, doesn't really have anything to do with equality but rather the fact that we don't see ourselves as Americans but rather identify with our races first, as we do others.

A good point about the neighborhoods. However, it seems that even those with differing races all have points of commonality, like the black families who the gangsters and rappers and such would call "white on the inside" would live in the well-to-do and well-kept neighborhoods.

[Wraitchel]

I don't agree that it's alright for blacks to call whites racially insulting terms. It goes both ways where I live. Nobody gets away with it. It is just trashy to use any of that derogatory language. I hate to sound like somebody's grandmother, but people who use derogatory, bigoted terms just make themselves look bad, whatever color they are. Most of the people I am friends with, whatever their race wouldn't do that.

[Sophus]

It's interesting that we can have a United Negro's College Fund and All Black Churches etc, etc. But if an All White Church or National White's College Fund was established it would be deemed racist before you could say "Mississippi hot dog."

[chuff]

It's interesting that we can have a United Negro's College Fund and All Black Churches etc, etc. But if an All White Church or National White's College Fund was established it would be deemed racist before you could say "Mississippi hot dog."

That's precisely the kind of tripe I'm talking about.. whereas "racial discrimination" was once looked down upon and fought against, it's now esteemed and valued by the same racial community..

They now demand race-based privileges instead of detracting race-based punishments.

It's all still race-based. It's all still wrong.

[Sophus]

They now demand race-based privileges instead of detracting race-based punishments.

  Isn't it remarkable?

[Wraitchel]

"They" had race based privileges because they were needed. They still are. Do a tiny bit of research and you will find that statistically a person of color does not make as much on average as a white person does. It is harder to get a good job, a good education. Sure, in many places the opportunities have equalized, hence our soon to be president, but don't try to tell me that your average inner city minority kid is as safe or has as many opportunities as a white kid. As a woman, who also has a glass ceiling to contend with, I think that white males whining because the underdogs are still having to organize and fight for protection and rights is pathetic. This country still has a racist underbelly. I saw it in the election. Didn't you?

[Kevin]

Yeah, I personally think race played a BIG role in the election, even if those people don't want to admit it... But, so did age, as after-poll statistics showed. But if Obama was white, the election would have been WAY different... Blacks wouldn't have had his face on the shirt they wore like twice a week, and he wouldn't of had as much publicity a year and half before the election.

And I'm actually suprised I got 9 replys to this already, and I'm glad to see most agreed with me... Like Sophus said, blacks, and well, all races, really, besides middle-eastern and whites in the U.S. have "special rights", as I would like to call it, because of their race... Like you said, Sophus, if there was a group trying to start up a White Scholarship Fund, or All-White University, or All-White Christian Church, they would be criticized, despised, hated, and shut down... But blacks, mexicans, asians, etc. do it, then it is a good thing... There is no such thing as racial equality in the society of the U.S...

[curiosityandthecat]

It's interesting that we can have a United Negro's College Fund and All Black Churches etc, etc. But if an All White Church or National White's College Fund was established it would be deemed racist before you could say "Mississippi hot dog."

That's precisely the kind of tripe I'm talking about.. whereas "racial discrimination" was once looked down upon and fought against, it's now esteemed and valued by the same racial community..

They now demand race-based privileges instead of detracting race-based punishments.

It's all still race-based. It's all still wrong.

Obviously no one read the White Whine article I linked. I'll summarize the relevant point to this: nearly every other college fund and church IS a National White College Fund or a White Church.

[Kevin]

Obviously no one read the White Whine article I linked. I'll summarize the relevant point to this: nearly every other college fund and church IS a National White College Fund or a White Church.

I was going to, but I had a friend over and didn't want him to see my on the HAF lol I didn't want to start something right now.

[SSY]

I read it and disagree with it totally, it sounds like many other "Boo hoo, nasty white people" whines I have heard before

I think all forms of affirmitive action are inherently wrong. not only are they unfair, whichever way you look at them, they are also counter productive in all senses. At a university with such an admission policy, every minority student has the spectre of of it cast over them, "are they here becuase they are smart, or because they are black?" thoughts will abound. Not only that, it also sends the message that minorities need help to make their way in the world, becuase they lack something to help themselves.

Also, with regards to the glass ceiling comment, nonsense, there has been no glass cieling in my country for years, in many cases quite the opposite.

Equality of opportunity is right, enforced equality of outcome is not. When you see a workplace that is predominantly one group, you can not make the assumption it is that way becuase of discrimination.

If an engineering company is full of men, and a nursing facility is full of women, does this imply discrimination? No, different people have different abilities and preferences, there is some correlation between these differences and race/sex. It is precisley becuase of these differences that any sort of race based or sex based quota is usless, it labels people as large groups without ascribing to the character of the people in those groups.

[curiosityandthecat]

Affirmative Action is, in its essence, a system set up to prevent racist, bigoted business owners from refusing a person employment because of qualities inherent to his or her biology. (On a related note, it is illegal for Affirmative Action to place quotas on businesses. If a business has a quota, they placed that upon themselves. The government takes no legal action against businesses who at least attempt to follow the AA guidelines.) University "urban scholar" programs, as they are so often called, have stringent (normally) and clear qualification standards, usually focusing on GPA and SAT/ACT score. They are there to help students from low socioeconomic status areas pay for higher education that they would not have been able to otherwise.

Explain to me how that's bad.

You can make the assumption that workplaces are "boys clubs" due to discrimination. Whether or not that assumption is fair is the question. Look at a Country Club. You think it's mostly old, White men because they're most qualified to play golf, or because they don't want them darkies niggin' up their greens?

Whites have an inherent set of privileges based solely on the color of their skin. It's when these privileges are questioned that terms like "reverse racism" start popping up. Reverse racism is an oxymoron, incidentally. Racism is an overarching system of power that privileges a certain race while denigrating the abilities, opportunities and quality of life of another race.

Race did play a large part in this past election. Many Blacks were extraordinarily excited about Obama's nomination and subsequent election, and for good reason. Don't you think we, as an atheist community, would do the same if one of us was elected and won? In the baby boomers' lifetimes it has gone from separate drinking fountains, fire hoses and dogs, to a dark skinned man being elected to the most powerful position on the planet. That's pretty damn amazing. Yeah, if I was a Black guy, I'd be jumping up and down, too.

Truth be told, I did jump up and down when he won.

But, just to illustrate the concept of White privilege, I want the White folk here to look at this list of items, and be honest with themselves. How many of these would you say reflect your experience?

[spoiler:3p4b1shx]1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.[/spoiler:3p4b1shx]