Actually, you're right. I was unnecessarily sarcastic. It's absolutely not my MO except for cases where I feel that that's how I'm being approached. Judging by this response it seems that neither of us presented the other with our best selves.

Now pretend you're me. You're a black guy and a white guy responds to an article you've written about racism with what seems to be a bad-faith reading of what you wrote. Nobody else has even come close to interpreting this line this way. In addition, he decides to talk down to you about what will and won't make racism disappear. Notice that I was so irritated by this line I didn't even answer your question.

"Are you suggesting that articles about race should not touch on how systemic racism continues to effect Black Americans? Because pretending those challenges don’t exist doesn’t make them disappear."

How do you think you'd perceive that guy? Then he doubles down on the condescension in the next reply. As I said, I spend a huge amount of my time writing and answering comments on the internet, yours was the first in I don't remember how long which felt so condescending that it actually made me angry.

You're absolutely right, I didn't need to be sarcastic, it wasn't helpful. But I don't know you. If you signal immediately that you're the type of person that talks down to strangers and talks to them as if you understand an issue which directly affects them better than they do, it's probably not going to be taken well.

Anyway, I wish we'd gotten off on the right foot. I'd much rather we'd spoken to each other like this from the start.