Like most White people, you were taught growing up that racism is bad, Martin Luther King is good, and everything will be okay if you're nice.
This worked as a kid so you figured it will work as an adult and now you live by this simple formula.
You never explored it further. You never bothered to examine if it might be more nuanced, not as simple as that.
Your idea of racism is confined to the "burning cross" kind – lynchings, KKK rallies, angry White people spewing the N-word. Those people are clearly not nice!
You can't understand the more subtle forms of racism – the "fetch me some lemonade" kind. What are people complaining about? Slavery is over. Jim Crow too. We're post-racial. A meritocracy. You have a Black friend.
You dragged your outdated, comfortable worldview with you from childhood. It led to fragility – defensiveness, combativeness, White solidarity – whenever someone brings up systemic inequity and privilege.
You lack cultural competence. You cling to your beliefs. You dismiss out of hand the idea of microaggressions.
Isn't this all irrelevant? Shouldn't Black people get over it? Stop bitching? Try harder? Move out of the ghetto? Not be so rude?
It's gotten so bad that if Black people keep grumbling, you're gonna stop being nice.
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