Let's just play devil's advocate for a minute...
For argument's sake, let's just say the racism Black people say they experience actually is racism.
And perhaps we could say that Europeans created whiteness centuries ago to justify the subjugation, oppression, and enslavement of Black people.
And perhaps we could just say—again, for argument's sake—that enslaved Black people didn't really like being enslaved.
I mean, for argument's sake. Stick with me—if you can.
And if we say that Black people didn't really like being enslaved, and in fact found it the most despicable dehumanizing existence imaginable, and had to endure it for hundreds of years, could we say, that maybe, just maybe, they'd still be kind of pissed off about that?
Especially if we say—again, just for argument's sake—that slavery was followed by the Black Codes and the KKK and Jim Crow and lynching and disenfranchisement and redlining and over-policing and the war on drugs and White supremacy and White rage and racist laws and racist policies and racist systems and continued marginalization, most of which is still happening today.
So, if we said all that was true—still playing devil's advocate here—could we maybe, just maybe, believe a Black person when they said they experienced racism?
Or is that too much of a stretch?