Jay, I don't know how I can make myself any clearer. I've said twice in this thread alone that I don't think you're a racist. The fact that I think you have blind spots when it comes to race--as does everybody--isn't the same as being a racist. The issue we've bumped up against a few times now, is that you don't seem the least bit interested in looking at those blind spots. When I raise them, your response is simply "Well You have blind spots too Steve," which is deflection. As I also said on my Substack, we need to be more interested in communicating than winning.

Now let me be clear, I'm sure I have blind spots too. But when I write an article I have the advantage of sitting down and considering very, very carefully what I'm going to write, reading many perspectives, and trying extremely hard to write something that is fair and balanced. You've accused me of not looking at racism from the perspective of white people a few times, but you've never explained how I've failed to do so. If you think anything I've written is unfair to white people, please, point it out. I've always welcomed that kind of feedback.

I'm not saying you share charateristics with Trump, I don't know Trump or you. I only mentioned him because you seem to think that claiming that you're "the least racist person of any colour" is a reasonable claim and don't seem to understand how badly it comes across. I thought highlighting that Trump had said almost exactly the same thing would make it obvious that making the claim a) doesn't come across well at all, and b) won't be taken as evidence by any reasonable person.

There's been no "white person's" point of view throgh which to view this thread. We haven't been talking about white issues or black issues. This is just a conversation between you and me. But yes, again, I've spent a lot of time looking at the current racial climate from white people's point of view. I've simultaneously been looking at it from black people's point of view. I think the support my articles have recieved kind of speaks for itself as far as whether I've been successful in striking that balance.

There are black and white people who think I've got it wrong, but at least 95% of the people who read my work think I've got it right. So that gives me a lot of confidence that I have. You might be in the 5% that disagrees. That's fine. But if so, point to something I've written and tell me what you think I've missed. I feel perfectly justified in saying it's ridiculous to claim that I'm simply divisive in general. Again, I think the support my writing has received speaks for itself.

Lastly, as I've said repeatedly, I don't know you. I don't know how empathetic or self aware or anything else you are. How could I? I haven't levelled any "personally insulting attacks" against you at all. You interpreted my words as calling you selfish when I was simply describing what I consider a selfish behaviour.

I'm not interested in a conversation about our characters as human beings because there's no way either of us can say what kind of human being the other is. My opinion of you as a person doesn't matter, because I've never even met you. All I'm doing is explaining how the words you wrote here came across to me. If you want to talk about how my words came across to you, that's totally fair enough. But let's not make this a competition of "who's the most self-aware" or "you did X as well". That's a waste of both our time.