Reply #41: I understand your point, but the problem with it is that ANY discussion of race leads

[EffieBlack]

many whites to claim that race is being used as a "political bludgeon" - ANY discussion. And the response is usually the one you gave, blaming blacks or the left or whoever for "racializing" the discusion (which, as I noted, is a pretty bizarre claim).

The bottom line of such a charge is, whether it is acknowledged or not, that it subtly tells blacks to be quiet because WHENEVER we bring up race - or even respond to it when other bring it up - we are somehow "making legitimate issues of race and acism harder to discuss."

Race is an uncomfortable topic. Discussions of it are naturally going to make people uneasy. But if the ground rule for the discussion is that it first not cause any discomfort, there WILL be no discussion. Unfortunately, when balancing the discomfort that some white people will feel engaging in such a discussion against the frustration and pain that blacks feel as a result of having to deal with this crap day after day, we usually err so far on the side of making sure that white folks don't feel any sense of discomfort that it IS tantamount to telling black folks to just shut up already.

Until we get to a point that white people are willing to feel a little uncomfortable in order to help ease this situation, we are going to continue to have these problems. And blaming them on blacks or others on the left who are trying to discuss these issues rationally and openly is the real problem here, not the attempt to engage in the discussion.