It's not that I don't agree with some of what you're saying. At least in principle, but I always feel the need to highlight this particular blind spot. There is no "going back to being individuals" for black people in America. Because there was never a point in American history when black people as a group were allowed to just be individuals.

The point where we can all be individuals is (I hope) somewhere in the future. And to reach it, everybody, black and white, needs to work to fix their thinking in the present.

This belief that the point where this was all fine is somewhere in the past, is a uniquely white perspective. Because for almost all of American history, nobody was calling being white into question. But seriously, think about it from other points of view.

Now, let's be clear, I think the current attacks on "whiteness" are a huge mistake that pulls the conversation in exactly the wrong direction. But so does this idea that society is a race blind meritocracy where if minorities and women don't succeed, it's only because they aren't as smart as or didn't work as hard as their peers.