Some racist troll asked me “if I always wanted to be white”.  This is what I told him.

Nah, being white, in the way you describe, might be soul crushing.

I would have to …

-unlearn so many things, so many falsehoods.

-go back to when I accepted being white and all the messages I received about being white.

-undergo some form of transformation, some form of understanding that I am not at the center of everything and that even in my dreams I could be powerful and all knowing–and to realize that because I assumed whiteness and all of the privileges with it, that this acceptance might dehumanize me.

-admit that there are experiences outside of my own that might help me to learn about the world better.

-create a different narrative of how I understood history and the contributions of people of color.

-defend something that I poorly understood but had to pledge allegiance to.  Admonished, if I didn’t.

Then ended my comments with this:

Just don’t try to make me eat injustice and swallow it, and think that what you are feeding me is meant to nourish me.

–Dr. Brian L. Ragsdale