It's Okay, White People, We Can Admit The Truth.

[FarLeftFist]

POSTED BY JHW22

When the Trayvon Martin news became a big social media event, I was on vacation in the beautiful woods of Oklahoma - yes they exist. I went to two Walmarts for groceries and was nervous as hell for my car with the Obama sunrise O sitting out in the parking lot. My hope was no one knew what that was. It was creepy. I was surrounded by hunters and obvious Tea Partiers. I felt like I'd walked into the wrong universe.

I am a white woman, so I guess there was no real way to identify me as an outsider -- although, I do look like Rachel Maddow's twin, so it's possible someone could have assumed I was a lesbian liberal Yankee and I'd have been in trouble. I'm not a lesbian but I am a liberal and was raised in New Hampshire, so I was shaky.

But I was lucky. No one sniffed me out. For that period of time, I felt vulnerable. It was my own brain doing that to me, though. No one else.

I read about Trayvon one of the days on that vacation when I hopped online for a few minutes. My immediate thought was, "I can't read that, it's gonna hurt too much". I knew there was nothing good in a story about a dead, beautiful kid. I couldn't bring myself to know what happened because I don't handle grief so well anymore.

Read the rest: http://www.broadwaycarl.com/2012/03/its-okay-white-people-we-can-admit.html

[Johnny Rico]

1. So the author finds it "creepy" that she was in the same parking lot as hunters? Yeesh...

[Brooklyn Dame]

2. Good post...

I am never stunned to hear anyone accuse President Obama of anything negative. It is, as was stated in the commentary, projection. We will never get to a point of understanding until people can be honest about their feelings and admit everything from their own biases to the level of privilege they experience. Throughout the presentations of the Trayvon Martin story, the thing that has disgusted me most has been white people saying that this tragic incident couldn't be racially rooted because the US has a black President so racism has passed. *Sigh*

http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/03/its-a-wrap-week-in-review-march-25-2012/

[plcdude]

3. There are a few

DU'ers in Oklahoma so if you need help call me.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. She made an assumption that everyone in that parking lot was a republican. That's a mistake.

That is what keeps us from changing minds. When I walk into a store on any given day, here in Texas, I'm pretty confident there are others like me. This reads like paranoia at its best. If that was her intent, she did not clarify very well. The last part is spot on.

I walk into my local HEB almost daily looking like a "People from Walmart".

[badtoworse]

5. You need to chill out. You're a bit paranoid.

[Nye Bevan]

6. Hunters and Tea Partiers murder people who look like Rachel Maddow?

I need to do a better job keeping up with the news.

[got root]

7. as a TWG myself, i hear what she's say'n

especially since i've lived abroad too to see/experience a difference.