Good Luck Steve, And I Mean It

My most popular article, Anti-Racism Is Becoming Troublingly Racist, is a bit of an enigma to me.

I mean sure, I understand why people liked it. It was informative, a little controversial, and even kind of funny if I say so myself. But what surprises me is that both sides of the debate seemed to love it equally.

For an article read by so many people and with nearly five hundred replies as of this writing, hardly any of those comments were anything but complimentary. In fact, it was so unifying, that even our old friend Ray didn’t have anything too negative to say!

The last time we heard from Ray, he’d had a mirror masterfully thrust in his face by a writer named Casira. Casira contrasted Ray’s anti-white rhetoric with the anti-male rhetoric of some radical feminists, and he was left so speechless that he didn’t even attempt to argue with her.

Did this conversation make him rethink his attitudes? Has he returned to us a new and more thoughtful man? I’ll let you be the judge:

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Ray:

Okay, based on my being tired of educating wypipo (Black and in between), I'll just leave all that to you, Steve. Trust me, it's all talk, and they don't have to get it. I would say, if this form of activism actually worked, we'd be well on our way to a world where racism doesn't exist. It's all necessary; even the things you don't believe are effective.

Perhaps it's a bit naive to think more people are willing to give up racism as a diet than are not, but I say there are more who aren't. That's why I'm simply wore out of trying that particular approach. I'll let you do it another 30 years and see how you feel & if the yardstick has moved a yard or more. I won't even be here to see it, for I'm 60+ and might not live that long.

I'm just a cynical old man who fought a good fight. I don't think it's Black people's problem to solve; I really don't. We are spinning our wheels. Time for something else, and I won't say in your comments what that something else is. People would be inflamed, triggered, and start sputtering nonsense.

Good luck, Steve, and I mean it!

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I talk a lot about seeing people’s humanity in my writing because I consider a failure to do this to be the number one reason that we’re so divided. It’s not political affiliation, or age or morality, and certainly not race. It’s the fact that we use each other as mindless avatars for the opinions we dislike.

This doesn’t often lead to productive conversations.

It’s no coincidence that as the internet has become our primary means of communication and human faces have been replaced with words on screens, our ability to truly talk to each other has diminished to the point of extinction.

So seeing Ray lower the defence systems and just talk to me like a (semi-)regular human being really felt like a win. I mean sure, he ruins it at the end with his veiled threat about some kind of race war, but I think it’s safe to say that this is just tough-guy posturing (60+ year old men aren’t known for their combat prowess after all).

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Steve QJ:

Good luck, Steve, and I mean it!

Thanks Ray. I know we don't quite see eye to eye on this. And you may be right and I may be wrong. As you said, time will tell. All any of us can do is what we honestly think is best.

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Short and sweet. But it’s official; behind all the posturing and anger, Ray is a human being! I’m so glad I got to see (and share) this side of him after all the battles we’ve had.

For those of you who like your stories to have neat, happy endings, this is probably a good time to jump off the Ray train. For everybody else, there’s uh…there’s one more instalment to come.