Haha, if you consider glancing at a Twitter thread that I helpfully linked in the article "dissertation-like research", then I guess it's a good thing that you're contenting yourself with writing comments (though I notice this mindset didn't stop you from making a bunch of groundless and incorrect assumptions about me🤔).

It's so crazy that you're here, on Medium no less, and you talk about the heinous historical actions of white people being treated as "normal". First, I've written about the heinous acts myself. I'm painfully aware of what was done to our ancestors. But second, you literally can't go two articles without reading about the evils white people have perpetrated on black people. Seriously, find me one, just one (!) article here saying that slavery or Jim Crow or any of it was normal. I'll find you fifty saying the opposite (and indeed, if such an article existed there'd be at least fifty comments saying the opposite).

And yes, I do believe that racists will extrapolate the actions of Mr. Joseph to stereotype black people. In fact, if you notice, the "weak, sensitive and fragile" line in the article was a link to a tweet saying exactly that in response to Joseph's thread. It's a direct quote. So if you think it's preposterous, I'd humbly suggest it's because you're not paying attention.

I don't want validation. I want respect, not just for myself, but for black people as a whole. But respect can't simply be demanded. It is earned through our behaviour. And by that I don't mean to imply that overreactions like Joseph's are normal. I mean that when they happen, black people are too often reluctant to say, "This doesn't represent us." I think this is a mistake.

I want equality, but I want to be clear about what that is. A society that believes that it's justifiable for black people (and only black people) to engage in such petty, vindictive behaviour will (pretty much by definintion) never simultaneously see us as equal. This is what I meant when I said we can have special treatment or equal treatment but not both. I don't react differently when a white person says something to me than when a black person says the same thing, because not one cell of my being believes that white people are superior to me or have any extra weight behind their words.

Most of all, I want the next generation of black kids to grow up in a world where they aren't taught to think of themselves as less than or helpless or "oppressed" as soon as a white person says something "mean" to them.

I want them to grow up knowing that when a white person tries to use their blackness to attack them, that's a reflection on the white person who says it. Not on them. And that they don't need to carry the fear of those comments around as if a word from a white person's lips has some special power to wound them.

I want them to grow up not instinctively wrapping themsleves in the oppression that their grandparents and great-grandparents suffered (and which thank god they don't have to live through because of the bravery of their ancestors), because though society isn't perfect today, believing that they're victims, or that society is out to get them, is a lie that will hurt them far more than it will help them in almost every single case.

So, respectfully, I absolutely do not agree to disagree. You are, of course, welcome to drop this if you like, but I think this kind of thing is far too important to simply retreat to our respective echo chambers when we encounter an opposing viewpoint. In that sense, I'm glad the article provoked you. Not because I want to upset you, but because I think, from the tone of your comment, that you're missing some important things. Maybe I am too. That's what conversation is supposed to be for.