While spending a great deal of time recently with a chatty associate, she has, on several occasions given detailed examples of how she is NOT racist and reminds us of how many black friends she has and the wonderful kindnesses she has bestowed on black people; This is always spoken by her in a very self-congratulatory, self-satisfied manner, as if to proclaim, "See how wonderful I am, because I have black friends and get along with them." After one such conversation, a friend leaned over and whispered, "I'm always suspicious of people who just have to tell you how un-prejudiced they are; why is she always trying to CONVINCE us how magnanimous she is?" I said, "The lady doth PROCLAIM too much, methinks!", making a little pun on Hamlet. My friend said, "You just wanted to use METHINKS!"
Today, there were several people in a conversation about the racism demonstrated by one of the candidates for President and his supporters. She said, "I know a lot of blacks who are also very prejudiced." I said, "REALLY? You know a LOT of racist blacks? Well, I guess I can understand WHY they might be!" She was obviously shocked by my answer. She continued, "My college roommate hated ALL whites." I answered, "And you continued being her roommate?" She replied, "Well, I got along fine with her." I said, "Well, then she must not have hated ALL whites, since YOU were able to get along FINE with her." She seemed flummoxed by that dose of logic. I continued, "So, she must not have hated ALL whites, or was it because YOU were so special?" She looked askance and said, "Well, I guess that's true."
No comments:
Post a Comment