Nothing in the World Is That Simple—Even When It Comes to Understanding the Anger on the Other Side
- Here's the thing about racial privilege: "Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel they have been particularly privileged in their race" (100).
- And here's the thing about corrective measures like affirmative action: resentment builds when a lower middle class student doesn't receive enough money to attend a certain university "because of an injustice that [he or she] never committed" (104).
- The anger is real on all sides, friends, and neither group should be made to believe they're feeling anything wrong—it just isn't that simple.
- White populations today weren't responsible for the actions of their ancestors, the people who may have owned slaves or championed for the institution.
- So when they and their families have to do things differently in order to atone for those prejudices, "resentment builds over time" (104).
- And just because we don't talk to each other about our frustrations doesn't mean they don't influence us. In many cases, choosing not to talk about it makes everything worse.
- That "racial stalemate" was, of course, much less serious than that between Black people and white people, but the point is we have to acknowledge the concerns of the opposition if we ever hope to move forward together (113).