i just got back from an extended vacation visiting my 2 older brothers in West Virginia. it's weird, there's so many MORE professional black people there than there are in portland. i didn't get those you-sound-so-white-when-you-talk looks from other black people like the way i do in portland. instead, they just assume you're one of the professional black people like themselves. but the funny thing is, there are still the country-ghetto-uneducated people there, too, and they're REALLY country.
i also realized that i don't always know what offends people of other races. you'd think someone black would be SO polically correct. i guess that just because i know what offends black people doesn't necessarily mean i know what offends people of other races.
when i got home, my next door neighbor, this really hip asian guy dyed his naturally black hair blond. my first reaction was to say, "you totally look like one of those asian tourists!" it was on the tip of my tongue before i stopped and thought: wait- is that offensive? i honestly didn't know. i know what comments are offensive to black people (of course) but not so much other people. is that weird? that's probably why when a white person gets called out about some racist remark they said, they always reply by saying "whaaaaat??" and everyone thinks they should automatically know what they said was wrong. not that i'm making excuses for them, not at all. but i can see how it could happen.
do white people ever get offended by subjective racist statements about themselves? and i can't remember any white people that i know of or in the media ever saying that they were offended by some kind of underhanded racial comment. seriously.
