It's actually over 54 countries.😄 But I've only lived in 4 for over a year (Morocco was around six months).

To be fair, my "living hell comment" was mainly with people like Rebecca Stevens and Allison Gaines in mind. I've seen other people who portray being a black person as a daily torment of micro aggressions, but those two really lean hard into the victimhood fetishisation. Both have blocked me for politely pointing out obvious problems with the narratives they promote. I'm very aware that the views on Medium don't represent the real world. But sadly, many of the staunchest "anti-racists" I come across here don't know that. Because they don't speak to enough black people in real-life. Hmmm, now that's a racial issue worth talking about...

But yes, I have no problem with alternate perspectives. In fact, I appreciate them. That's why I spend so much time engaging with my readers. But you presented a hypothetical based on a caricature of day-to-day life for black people. Not an alternate perspective.

I described it as fetishisation, because from my side, I regularly see how fiercely some white liberals cling to this caricature that black people can only be understood through a lens of oppression. They don't hesitate to accuse me of all kinds of things, often using racist language as they do, because they don't like having their view of themselves as righteous saviours challenged.

To be clear, I'm not accusing you of being a fetishist, just saying that your hypothetical was based on that same view. I care very deeply about black people who are treated unfairly by the system. And I'm very aware of the disparities that exist. I daresay more than most. My aim, in all my writing, is to focus attention on the most expedient ways to fix these problems rather than the moral grandstanding that so often acts as nothing but a distraction.