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In reply to the discussion: White DUers: Tell Your Stories [View all]femmedem
(8,201 posts)Last edited Sun May 6, 2018, 11:05 PM - Edit history (2)
1. Most recent (a few years ago): A group of brown tween boys walked down the hill as I walked up. I moved to the edge of the sidewalk so that we all had room without bumping into each other. One of the children thought I moved because I didn't want to be too close to them or was afraid to be close to them. He yelled, "That lady is racist!" I was heartbroken that he thought that was my intention. But I was new to the neighborhood then, and we talk frequently now. I adopted a kitten from his family.
2. Late at night, I was a passenger in a car with a black man driving. Bunch of yahoos started following us, too close, staying with us no matter how fast we went. They followed on our tail for at least ten miles on the highway. We were praying a cop would pull us over for speeding. Now this was more related to racism against the man driving, but I don't think they would have followed him if he'd been alone. It was the two of us together that set them off.
3. Kidnapped, raped and held hostage overnight by a black stranger while I was walking home as a teenager. I don't know for certain that he chose me because I am white, but he did say that I'd be too old to enjoy my art and my books by the time I left, that I'd be in pieces in garbage cans by the time I saw them again. So I would say that if race didn't enter into it, class certainly did, as I was a college student and he was a young, poor black man. (I'm not making assumptions about his income level; he took me to his apartment so I saw what he owned.)
I would say that all of my experiences of racism were born from white supremacy.
Edited to add: a fair number of my friends know I was raped. Very few know the rapist was black. I don't normally tell that part of the story because I don't want to add to that trope.