This is part of a series of suggested essays from Dkos exploring the issues set out in Denise Oliver Velez’s diary this Sunday Race and Racism: Barriers and Bridges.
One of the joys of returning after a week’s absence is to see that the issue of racism on this site and further afield has come into sharper focus. As I explained in my boycott diary, race is not everything, but anti-racism has been key to my political awakening and adult life.
But enough of that. In this diary I’m writing as a straight middle aged white man, and I want to explore what it’s like – as a straight middle aged white man – to be called a racist.
This is something the majority of commenters on Kos must have feared, experienced and witnessed – and a bit of self analysis on our reaction to that is probably overdue.