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• Sunday, January 21, 2007 07:20 PM

  Thanks, Debra.

  I must say, as a white person, I am sick to death of white folks getting stupid and defensive when anything related to race comes up.

  Yes, Obama is a "safe" one, both for his immigrant ancestry and for the lightness of his skin. We can point to him and Colin Powell and pat ourselves on the back for being sooo progressive, while at the same time putting a defensive hand on our bags when white folks walk down the street in Harlem. We allow a select few educated 10-percent-African-American folks into power? Okay, doesn't mean much if the vast majority of Black folks are scary to white people and/or in poverty.

  You know, immigrants are "okay" because they're foreign, they're other. A Kenyan immigrant in a private white high school is the same as the Bosnian refugee there - he's an example of our "generosity," our "openmindedness." But bring an honest-to-goodness American Black person there?? No one talked to her, except her girlfriend and her queer friends. (myself included.)

  We can accept immigrants because they're an example of this backwards "third world," that we can pretend we're not responsible for their poverty. But dark American Black folks represent the failings of this so-called "equality," this "American Dream" -- they represent the fact that the civil rights movement can't be over, that work is not done. We may technically have legal equality, but social equality is a long way off.

  —Katy M Read Katy M's other letters
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