A Reader Wants to Know, Am I A Racist?

This person commented multiple times, and my kind readers flagged the comment. I thought I would answer it because why not?

A reader writes:

This was horrific and shouldn't have happened. But let me ask, and let me preface by saying this is not in any way a personal attack... but would you have told your daughter to dispense of her "liberal white guilt" in a scenario where a conservative political activist holding a rally was shot and killed? Would you tell her to focus on her safety and surroundings regardless of the demographic background of those around or their political affiliation......even if nearly all of the students and attendees at said rally are white conservatives, the state itself is very largely white and conservative, and the shooter themselves are likely white? Especially....ESPECIALLY when said activist said shootings are necessary collateral to maintain the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment? And when said state allows firearms to be carried on campuses throughout the state? Would she receive the same lecture about safety and awareness of her surroundings considering the environment she would've hypothetically entered?

This is my favorite line of the year, “This was horrific and shouldn't have happened. But.” But? There is no “but.”

Charlie Kirk was wearing a bulletproof vest. He had security. No, in general, I would not think he would assume an assassin who scrawled “notices bulges” and “Catch a bullet, fascist” would have been in that crowd but now they know. This guy dressed like everyone else. He looked like everyone else.

There is no equivalence to “white guilt” in this context. If he had been a black speaker, then maybe I would say his desire to blend in made him too comfortable around people who might want him dead. If a black woman had gotten on the train and sat there, I would not think she would have any guilt or fear. If she did, she would not sit there and would have no problem protecting herself because there hasn’t been a multi-year campaign to shame her for “white privilege.”

Why was “Black Lives Matter” on Iryna Zarutska’s wall? What is that message? It is a message that tells us white people do not think black lives matter as much as white lives. In response to this decade-long messaging, our culture has attempted to undo what they think is “racism” throughout our culture. So now, no black man can ever be seen as a criminal, not in movies, not in TV shows, nowhere. Only white people, mostly men, are depicted this way. The message: be afraid of white men (if you are a woman).

I probably don’t have to tell you how much crime every year is perpetrated by black men — to do so would be against your religion, I’m assuming. I don’t do it often, but I do point it out to illustrate that the cultural messaging is a deception that some young women might have fallen for and thus would be too afraid to see a black man as a potential murderer.

Our culture also stereotypes the most violent people as not that different from our shooter, a young, white man. Charlie Kirk has been around those kinds of people for years, so he had no reason to fear him. Had he known the guy was spending time online amid “anti-fascist” messaging and who knows what else, he might have been more fearful of his life.

Melissa Hortman could never have known that a psychotic shooter would disguise himself as a cop and enter her home and kill her. He was dressed as someone she would trust, just as Charlie Kirk’s shooter looked a lot like someone he should trust, and just as Iryna’s killer looked like someone she should trust.

But let’s get down to what you really mean. You want to cast me as a “racist” because I would point out such a thing as white guilt, even though I was someone who was victimized by a black man who stole $5,000 — all the money I had — from me, and I never told the story out of guilt and shame, and also fear. I could not tell the truth, not after what happened to me at the hands of the Left.

If he’d been a white guy, I would have been more skeptical and not afraid to call the bank to check on his credentials. I was trying to deflect from the very thing you’re criticizing me for.

Just a quick background on my life: I was raised by a Jamaican stepfather who met my mom when I was around 10. He taught my sister and me about racism from a very young age. He was the strangest person — called himself a genius, was a boxer, a mathematician, and a probation officer. He also forced us to listen to his classical piano playing. He would often beat us with a belt when he said we were bad. If you watch the Netflix short, The Summer of the Shark (in the Voir series), you’ll see some of this play out.

He took us to see Cooley High in 1975. Great movie.

My sister and I braided our hair after that to try to look more black. We spent many years attending mostly black public schools. My daughter’s best friend throughout her childhood was black. I grew up knowing about white guilt. The first time I felt it, I was in an elevator with my sister, and a black man and his son were riding along. They laughed at something, and my sister and I laughed along with them. The boy looked at us and said, “What are you laughing at?”

Because I grew up this way, I spent much of my time online advocating for black filmmakers and was instrumental in helping to create the Woketopia Hollywood has become. Maybe you thought calling me out like this was some sort of sick burn. What I know is that what I care more about than what you think of me, pal, is my child.

I wanted my daughter to know that violence can come from anyone at any time. If you don’t trust a white tweaker on a train, don’t trust a black guy hearing voices either. This is important information that every young woman should know. And if I can spare my daughter’s murder, you know, I’m gonna do everything. I’ve given her endless lectures about ways she might be harmed. So why not tell her everything she needs to know?

Charlie Kirk was doing what he loved to do. If anything, he forgot that so many people on the Left not only wanted to see him shot but would celebrate his death in the wake of it.

Hope that answers your question.