axis of haterade: White people just like to talk in racist code and then pretend the code doesn't exist once you call them on it.
I mean, I am white, so I’ve been taught how to do this by example my entire life.
“Why are you assuming the sign writer meant BLACK crack dealers? Is it because you are racist and assume that all crack dealers are Black?”
No, you jackass.
I assume that when you tell cops to go arrest more people on drug related offenses, the ones they’re going to arrest are Black. Because I know how our criminal justice system works.
I know why the sign writer chose “crack” as the big scary drug instead of meth or heroin. I understand your code. I was born during the Reagan years. I grew up on it.
I know that “go arrest some real criminals” means “go arrest some Black people” because I live in the United States, I know what our prison population looks like, and I am white and know that no one who has ever said it to me meant their own neighbors who look like them.
And most of all, I know that you know this. I know that you know this very well. But this is how the code works. We all understand it. We absurdly pretend that POC don’t understand it. And we all deny that it exists at all the moment that its existence brought up.
It was bothering me, that sign, but I couldn’t really put my finger on why. In a weak moment I thought I was just being oversensitive, since I couldn’t even say what was wrong with it. So I just felt whine-y.
But that’s it. Right there. Layer upon layer.
