Walking While Black in the ‘White Gaze’

[raging moderate]

1. Thank you for this magnificent article.

It is well worth reading. The author shows such a wide range of knowledge and huge depth of understanding. One thing I noticed: the prohibition of a black person looking a white person in the eye. Long ago, it was poor white peasant people who were prohibited from looking their aristocrats in the eye, or questioning orders, or "stealing" some of the food they had produced but were required to give to their masters. When they got the chance, they turned around and did it to others, as though that would make them safe at last.

We white people are, as a group, encased in a rigid stifling suit of armor. Each of us must keep chipping away at the small portion within our reach. Our ancestors built it out of unreasoning terror, but the suit itself will eventually kill us, if we can't break out of it. We must learn to accept ourselves as we are and connect with other human beings. Articles like this one are very helpful to us in this struggle.