Blinders. Also, Gags. 0

Last night, I was at a function which turned out to have much smaller attendance than normal.

There were six of us, three white folks and three black folks, though mostly five persons were present at a time because persons came and went. So we had one of those lively interesting delightful conversations that cannot happen in a group of 15 to 20, the typical size of the gathering.

The conversation turned to the racism that floats freely in our society. Everyone had stories, some appalling, some quite nice.

The racism is there, all the time, everywhere (though not in everybody), lurking just under the surface of day-to-day life in America. You have only to open your eyes to see it.

Meanwhile, over at Balloon Juice, there seems to have been a kerfuffle about several somethings ABL posted. John Cole, the proprietor of the site, has stepped in regarding that, but what John Cole said could apply everywhere, not just at his own not-so-little blog.

As I have mentioned before, the reason we don’t “have a conversation about race” in America is because white folks don’t want to talk about it. Everyone else is willing to “have a conversation” (God, how I hate that overblown pretentious phrase!), but it would force white folks to face up to what white folks have done, so they ain’t talkin’.

So, what John Cole said.