This really is too easy…but I'll still do it.

Today's post is inspired by a commenter, "Poor and Happy," who I'm sure thought I wasn't going to let his comment get through moderation. So like most white dudes who visit my blog, he said some stupid shit. How stupid? I'll post his quote, in its entirety and without removing context:

There are more poor white people than poor blacks. It is you that play the race card for emotional appeal. It is a cheap way to get attention. But you found out the attention is not good.

Now I could first go after the fumbling English skills of this commenter, but that really is rather easy. No, instead, just days after MLK day, I would like to address why I "play the race card" even though there's "still poor white people in the world" who I haven't helped.

You see, when I go to a movie theater, all I see is white people. Oh, occasionally Ice Cube gets to release a black movie, but since How High, Method Man and Redman haven't been allowed back in front of a movie camera…I think. Anyway, the thing is, when a black movie comes out and I go to see it, I'm frequently one of a minority of white people in the room. That's because white people don't watch black movies. (They also don't watch queer films, but that's a whole other rant for another day.)

Danny Glover can't make a movie about the revolution in Haiti because the backers keep asking for a white hero to save the black people. It wouldn't be historically accurate, but Hollywood's concern is making sure that racist white people will have "someone to identify with" in the film. See, many so-called open-minded whites are so racist that they can't sit for a few hours through a film with an all black cast who are talking about how oppressive whites are. That level of honest self-assessment is lost on the vast majority of white people, who STILL get to insist that despite their close-minded views, they are not "really racist."

Right, because to be REALLY racist, you have to be willing to utter the slurs with conviction. If you can't say nigger, or spic, or gook; if you can't spit these words with real venom, then you can't be a real racist. It's true, you may only have white friends, only read white authors and only talk about matters that mean something to your people. But just because you shun everything about another race and avoid the topic like it's covered in the ebola virus, that doesn't really make you racist does it?

Yes, honky. Yes it does.

But let's keep going. If I leave the theater and go to a bookstore, almost all the books have white main characters, and are written by white authors. If I want a book with black characters written by a black author, I will be pointed to a segregated section of the store, a single bookshelf labeled "African-American." Blacks no longer have to ride at the back of the bus in America, but they are still at hanging out the back of the white publishing world. But just because black authors still can't find a white audience without a whitewashed cover or a push from Oprah, does that really mean that white publishers are racists?

Yes, they are.

Lots of affluent white publishers will sputter that they're not, and that they're just "catering to the market." But if they programmed readers to avoid diversity, and then complain that they can't do anything to reprogram people, then that is willful intent to maintain a white dominant status quo. That's racist. So even as they claim to be color blind, most of New York and Hollywood "liberals" are just as racist as people from the deep south who still wave rebel flags and swear that one day the south will rise again, and they're going to take back their slaves. The only difference is, the southerner wears their racism proudly, while the liberal pretends he is open-minded and above such social constructs. One is quick to hoot and holler over being stupid, while the other backpedals and insists that the offended parties "just misunderstood." But they're both racists. One is just better at self-assessment than the other is.

But getting back to my commenter, if you can claim that you won't talk about race because people of your own race are still "poor," then you are the worst kind of racist. Because no matter what valid topic is brought before you, you will always have a white victim card to play to make it all about your people again. Prisons are made up mostly of blacks and Hispanics? "So what? The white guards are constantly at risk of riots!" Drop outs in school are mostly black? "But white educators struggle so much to teach those uppity savages!" Drugs have been forced on the colored populations by white criminals? "But those criminal whites are just…uh…" Yeah, take your time, racist.

Closing this rant out, let's look at the rest of what this "Poor and Happy" white male wrote in an attempt to shame me out of speaking on the topic. In the game of mental maneuvering, this guy is wheeling a tricycle in circles and pretending he's on a Harley. This is pretty much par for the course for the males who come here seeking to comment and defend their racist or sexist views. They write in short sentences, and using little words. Yet they still manage to act superior despite defending their low-brow views using first grade writing skills.

But the real tragedy is, this douchebag will never learn. He will read this post and put his racist blinders on to make me the bad guy. He's really a good guy just helping out his people, and I can't appreciate how much blacks have stolen from the whites. The fact that the world still looks to be dominated by whites is merely an illusion, and white people must be defended from the black menace.

My husband has misguided notions that people like this can be taught if you just find the right example to show them the error of their ways. But to say this, he also ignores the number of Atheists who are still racist and/or sexist. Even enlightened people who do not use old world religions to justify their closed minds can find ways to be prejudiced, and they can still find ways to claim that they are not, and that other people are just "misunderstanding them."

But this guy not only went with this line of "There are more poor whites than poor blacks," he also wrote back again to tell me to read a book and "get educated on the topic." Because to his mind, the real problem here is, I just can't see how much control whites have lost to those scheming black people. I'm sorry white dude, but I don't see blacks controlling 99% of businesses. I don't see prisons full of white people, serving lengthy prison sentences for minor infractions that people of better social status might get a fine and probation for. I don't see white people being stopped more often by cops and security guards just for the color of their skin.

Maybe you do. Maybe you're so color blind that when you go to the movies, you just don't notice the lack of blackness in these films. Maybe when you look at whitewashed covers, you don't see a big deal. Maybe when you read only of white people having white adventures, you don't notice the absence of any other colors.

If that's the case, you're a racist, and I don't really have to examine your views more closely, because you're the bass-ackwards moron still living in the past, while I'm the cultured and enlightened world-traveler you're calling out for expecting better from you. Sorry, Goober, but that shit doesn't fly.

And Poor and Happy? Don't bother writing again. I will erase everything else you write, because this is not a platform for racists to explain their views. Now please, go off to fight in whatever culture war you think is going on.