The Huffington Post published an op-ed by Miriam Zintner, a black woman who “presents white.”
Zintner explained that she’d been outside gardening recently when a neighbor walked by her home with his two dogs. She took a break “to give the dogs a really good scratching around their ears” when her neighbor asked: “Why do you have a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on your front lawn when all those people do is kill each other?”
She wrote, “My lovely day screeched to a halt.”
“You know I’m Black, right?” I said, standing up as tall as my 5’4” frame would allow, the sun shining on my blond hair. I continued to pet his dogs, because I needed the comfort of petting dogs at that moment, and because I needed to keep my hands busy so they didn’t slap that man’s face.
After the usual back and forth of him saying “No!” and me saying “Yes!” and then him trying to gauge exactly “how Black I was” by asking which of my parents was Black and me replying “Both,” we had a very uncomfortable conversation about racism.
Clearly, this neighbor could have found a more diplomatic way to address Zintner’s sign or better still, should have left the subject alone.
Anyway, he went there. Zintner was insulted and launched into a history of racism in 1950s and 60s America.
I told him that people painted “Go Home N***er” on the back of our home when my parents finally saved enough money to build a house in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York [in the 1960s]. And I told him how “Black Lives Matter” calls attention to the fact that Black people are considered less than white people ― and that needs to stop.
I also told him if people don’t understand that Black lives matter, Black people will continue to be murdered by the police and denied opportunities by the establishment. We will not be allowed to participate in the “American Dream,” and we will be made to feel that this is somehow our fault when it is in fact the fault of a racist society with the full support of our government.
We are all aware of America’s racist history and of the Democrats’ outsize role in perpetuating it.
Zintner does not reveal her age, however, she recalls her parents participating in Martin Luther King’s March on Washington.
I vehemently disagree with most everything BLM stands for. In fact, when a neighbor complained in our online thread that her BLM yard sign had been stolen for the second time, I laughed. (No, I didn’t steal it!)
Zintner’s incident with her neighbor is the first and last specific example of a “horrible thing” that’s been said to her. The rest of her accusations are straw man arguments – “people tell me,” “they’ve told me,” and so on.
White people think I am white too, and therefore feel safe saying all kinds of horrible things they might not say publicly. I’ve had people tell me it “disgusts” them to see interracial couples. They’ve told me they don’t understand why Black neighborhoods look so “ghetto,” and that Black people are “animals” or “thugs.” Many of these people are educated, and hold jobs or positions that give them some form of power or influence over Black people. They are doctors, judges, lawyers, social workers and politicians. That’s frightening.
I find that odd. Because I’m white and nobody ever says things like that to me. Never.
If someone had told me they were “disgusted” by interracial couples, that black neighborhoods look so “ghetto,” or that blacks were “animals or thugs,” I’d remember it.
At various times over the years, high school, college, working – I’ve checked in with each of my three children to get a feel for the racial climate among young people. They have repeatedly said racism is just not “a thing” in their generation. They don’t even think about a person’s race. Nor is it a topic of conversation between them and their friends.
If they were black, they might tell me a different story
This is not to say that racism no longer exists in America.
It does and to some degree, it always will. Still, it’s nowhere near as prevalent as the Miriam Zintners of the world, who remain stuck in the 1960s, would have you believe.
It is impossible to completely eradicate all racism from any society. We are all human. There will always be some level of mistrust or dislike, or however one wants to characterize the innate suspicions people hold toward those from outside their own ethnic, racial, social, or even athletic group. That’s just the way people are wired.
I firmly believe that no country has worked harder to eliminate racism from their society than the U.S. And no other country offers greater opportunities for minorities than America.
There is one form of racism that is most definitely on the rise in the U.S. The left tells us it doesn’t exist. Yet it stands at the center of BLM’s platform.
That’s anti-white racism.
BLM (and BLM-inspired groups) don’t seek equality with whites, but superiority over them. They call for the murder of police officers and the destruction of white America.
Yes, Ms. Zintner, black lives matter, but no more so than white lives, brown lives or yellow lives.
Until you’re capable of acknowledging that, you remain the problem.
PS: Why does Ms. Zintner (and so many others) capitalize the “B” in black people and not the “W” in white people? Just asking.
Zintner’s op-ed can be read below.
This new piece from @MimZWay is one of my favorite essays we've published on @HuffPost Personal this year
Its power comes from Miriam's honesty and wisdom and bravery but, more than anything, her refusing to be anyone other than exactly who she ishttps://t.co/hPeztVTWqp
— Noah Michelson (@noahmichelson) December 9, 2021
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