Recently I heard a black lady argue with a white lady and she said she takes no disrespect from any white person, because white people must atone for slavery.
I try to atone because that was what my Father used to do. He took us into slums of Chicago to work with Mother Teresa's Nuns feeding and caring for black people. I've lived at Saint Lukes mission of mercy in the ghetto of buffalo New York where white people give black folks free houses, free clothing, free money, free hygiene products, hundreds of meals every day, free dentists and healthcare clinics, and yet I heard so many hateful comments towards white people and was harassed for my ethnicity.
Repeatedly I go to the soup kitchen here and the majority of volunteers behind the counter are white, and the other line benefiting from their charity is primarily black. I have seen far more works of charity coming from white people and they don't make racial slurs. At least, almost never. I hear racial slurs from blacks regularly.
As a Franciscan I did similar works of charity. Also, where I am now, I give more money to African Americans than other ethnicities. Then I get treated like a sucker and a chump to be manipulated and I simply had to cease doing that because people I didn't even know were knocking on my door asking for sometimes even 10 to 40 dollars. I had a reputation of giving out money, and it came to haunt me, and honestly, I don't make hardly anything. I get general assistance and pan handle (but am looking for a job.)
Almost all the people that beg me for change wear nicer shoes and clothes than I do. One of them who got some money from me, and asked me for money repeatedly, so I said "This is the last time. I make just as much as you". He said, "no, I don't make just as much as you. I make more." He smiled and walked away, leaving me thinking WTF!
So, now, I just say, "I don't have money for you, but even if I did, I would not give it to you." It offends them, but I simply don't care anymore. Not to mention, I've heard far more racial slurs from black people than from white people. Extremely more! I've lived in ghettos, jails, and homeless shelters throughout life.
I'd bet I've interacted and lived with more African Americans than anyone on this forum, and many of them are great people, and some of them helped me out with money as well. It means a lot to me when that happens, and I never forget it, and always give them a blessing and gratitude for their kindness. I kid you not. I lost my virginity to a black girl, I've had a black judge, an awesome black public defender, I've got a black probation officer, and a black AA sponsor, and black peer specialist. They are friggin awesome and better people than myself.
I have no problem whatsoever with skin color. I wish I was darker lol. I just have a problem with certain behaviors and selective outrage that I see coming from black people that I don't see coming from every other race combined. I'm just wondering why there is such a huge double standard and hypocrisy that I find far more prevalent amongst one ethnicity.
So, if white people must atone for their harsh treatment of other races, how should we go about it? Let's not forget hundreds of thousands of white people that labored, suffered, and shed their blood to end slavery, and eventually end white privilege.
