I’m tired of suppressing myself to get along with white people

salon ^ | 1/1/16 | Priscilla Ward

[Nachum]

I met my new roommates on Craigslist. Two white, one Chinese. Together we represented Portland, Florida, China and (with me) D.C., and as we moved into our apartment in Bed-Stuy last fall, I was excited for the potential of cross-cultural exchange.

We had a get-to-know you powwow on the rooftop. We talked about ourselves, what brought us to New York. It was a warm evening in September, a couple of weeks after Michael Brown was shot, and somewhere in the mix I brought up Ferguson, hoping to spark a “conscious conversation.” Then it happened. The nightmarish response.

“What’s happening in Ferguson?” one of my white roommates asked. “I heard some kid got shot or something like that.”

The words clamored in my ears. How could he not know? Weren’t his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds flooded with opinions and hashtags? I’m sure he meant nothing by his statement. We’re all ill-informed from time to time. But as I stood there, awkwardly not saying a word — while hundreds of words ran through my head — it was a reminder of how much I would have to suppress in order to get along with my white male roommates in our tiny four-bedroom apartment. This place I would call my home for a year.

It hasn’t always been like this for me. I’m a girl with a fro, raised in the place once known as “Chocolate City.” I grew up part of a black nuclear family, was home-schooled, then became part of of the mini-Historic Black College Experience at Temple University. After arriving in New York, I became an intern at Essence, a magazine so safe I likened my boss to an aunt. Those settings were as comfortable as my grandma’s cooking on any given Sunday.

[BenLurkin]

Lady...just stop wearing your skin color on your sleeve and everything will be okay.

You’re as bad as the people complaining about there not being any white Jedis in The Force Awakens.

[Gay State Conservative]

[bboop]

‘I look forward to the day when my little children can be judged by the quality of their character, not the color of their skin.” MLK. Gotta love the black racists.

[Stayfree]

Get out of yourself especially if you are not comfortable in your own body.............

[A_Former_Democrat]

Hey Baby, if you had ANY idea what the rest of us have to go through to “accommodate” you . . . you’d be apologizing for life.

Where does Salon find these idiots?

[A_perfect_lady]

Has she heard about the white girl who was burned alive? Shoot, even I don’t remember her name. I think her name was White Girl.

[Calpublican]

Another dreary self-absorbed wannabe victim.

[achilles2000]

Such a sense of entitlement, lack of information, and lack of intellectual integrity. We need to be making people like her “uncomfortable” for trying to assume an unmerited position of moral superiority.

[ConjunctionJunction]

Looks like Priscilla’s not a fan of “diversity” or “multi-culti”.

[Theoria]

Hunter gathers are looking for food right now in the Savannah and the Mississippi River is flooding and causing problems.

She is crying in her room and is upset about stuff. Ok

[Pollster1]

It sounds to me like three of the four people in that apartment are just people; they are indifferent to race. One of the four thinks skin color is everything and is in for a rough life. It’s sad what democrats have done to America’s blacks - wasting the potential that 12% of Americans could have used to make our country a better place.

[SpaceBar]

Vester Flannigan felt the same way as the author of this screed.

[doug from upland]

We have to know he enemy, but my goodness does Salon ever put out crap.

[Theoria]

'Concealing my emotions has made me feel like a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.'

Ouch...#tickingtimebomb

[bboop]

This reply was, of course, to the person who wrote this stupid article.

[Norm Lenhart]

I read this exact article over a year ago. Salon is slipping.

[AnalogReigns]

"But I want to stop tiptoeing around race. My blackness[white skin] is not a secret I have to keep. I want to be able to publicly express my honest admiration for being black[white], outside of my little black planet[white friends]. I do not want to feel marginalized, like I cannot speak hard truths about myself. Having honest and challenging conversations with people of another race will hopefully disrupt other people’s ignorance. But it will also help me. I need to stop with my mental temper tantrums. I want to get free."

Any Caucasian person who talked like that would certainly be considered racist, and rightly so. Why do we give blacks a pass on their own racism?

[Clemenza]

Whether the two white kids, the banana, or this ebony lady, it’s really annoying that all these “educated” hipsters and yuptards are now taking over Bed Stuy. Transplant young people of all races are making NYC a much more vanilla place.

[Lazamataz]

I'm tired of suppressing myself to get along with white people

I agree. We should segregate.