Many people say that all humans will have the same opportunities, and everyone should know how to take advantage of them. Vulnerability is a foreign concept to them, so they tend to lie to themselves and claim that they have more authority to change their circumstances than they actually possess. So many are fixated on not mentioning that race is a socioeconomic problem because they want to believe that the most important issue is class, over which they feel they have some control. To a certain extent, yes, having resources is extremely important, and I would argue that race, resources, and location are the three most important factors in determining one’s success in life. However, as a Black woman, I have been repeatedly harassed by several poorer white people who believed that they had the rights to make my life miserable because of my appearance, regardless of any humility. If unhoused white people are bullying Black people, then race is still part of the conversation.
There is a famous quote that Lyndon Baines Johnson, another Texan, stated about white people in the imperial United States, and that has been truer now with the rise of the technoligarchs (not originally my word, but I really like it). At one point, I helped feed people with a nonprofit, and we started the preparations at a church, but there was a certain spot where people were supposed to wait. Because I got there first, I would inform the people who were there that they would have to wait in a certain place, and I did this for multiple months with no incident. However, one day, a white man decided that I was “yelling” outside and called the church to complain about me, and an associate pastor, who was a white woman, came out to berate me. While I was being berated, all the white people I had been working with and the Black man stood as far apart from me as possible because after all, I had become an “angry Black woman,” and I was considered insane. In the United States, people with nothing can enjoy bullying Black women unkindly, and people of privilege support this maltreatment and hide behind “politeness.”
Most of the time, Black people can be doing absolutely nothing, and someone will work to harass us as we continue living our lives–well, harass or extract from us, with a fifty-fifty chance that other people will help them. I used to work within walking distance of my bank, and I had time during lunch to make a quick stop before finishing my day. As I turned onto Congress Avenue, I walked past a white woman and said, “Excuse me,” and she said, “Move, nigger! Do you have a problem with me saying that?” I actually laughed, for two reasons. First, I had a white woman boss who passed me over for bonuses and promotions claiming that she never saw race, and disbelieved in racism in general. Secondly, I was being polite and minding my business, and some random white woman decided to remind me of what my place was. Even white people with mental health issues in public still know enough to know that “Black” should equal “bad,” and they understand the impact of the word, “nigger.”
Curiously, people equate being poor with being Black, and fail to understand how such a mindset is racist. Essentially, such people believe that all white people should be considered both rich and above Black people, and if they are poor, it is because they, too, have the same traits as those whom they believe to be the lowest ranking members of society. Again, race, resources, and location make all the difference, but if one is poor, they can understand very little about life outside their immediate circle. Some of the people with the humblest upbringing have made more than I have ever been allowed to make, and they have been indoctrinated to believe that because they have grown up poor, I should already have more money since I was raised with relative privilege. When I mention that nobody can see their upbringing whereas my race is obvious, they argue that Black people will always look to make ourselves targets, even when I point out history that shows us keeping to ourselves.
Anecdotal evidence may seem unimportant, but at the same time, nobody believes Black people when we say anything because our truth destroys the delusions of the dominant narrative. People hate Black people so much that they fail to be honest about it, even with themselves, and because it is irrational, they spend a great deal of time obsessing about how poverty is almost a disability. When Kamala Harris kowtowed to the dominant narrative saying, “This is not a racist country,” the country smirked, and responded, “Yeah you stupid coon, we’ll show you where you really are.” Now, those same people have been harassing Black people for months because when issues finally affect them, they realize that race is something completely different from class.
Chasing A Dying Empire 