[Coda]

Ava, your perspective is refreshing and insightful, and I want you to feel very welcome here. :)



I extend my heartfelt apologies if I've seemed like I'm dismissing real problems. Certainly I understand that the amount of a problem it is depends on where you live, and I was raised in a good part of the country. And certainly there are quite appropriate things to be pissed off about. I'm not trying to say that racism isn't a problem.

All of the things I've been pointing out have been distractions from the problem. There are a lot of things that have serious research behind it that lay people misunderstand, and even though they mean well the pop-science interpretation of things doesn't help and sometimes even makes things worse.

The cultural appropriation thing is an example of what I mean. Cultural appropriation is a real problem, but well-meaning people misunderstand what it actually is and apply the label to things that it really doesn't apply to. Then people rightfully get defensive of being accused of something they're not doing, and it all descends into a shouting match that completely ignores the places where the real problems are happening, while making it seem more risky to mingle with people of other races lest you upset someone.

Maybe I'm just old, maybe I'm just idealistic, but I feel like if we as a society would combine our efforts and focus on inclusiveness and supporting those in need instead of fighting each other and jumping on the little things that we could make progress a lot faster.