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Why Do Some Black People want to be Adjacent to Whiteness?
Some thoughts from experts and my take on the matter
Photo Source — AVM
Proximity to Whiteness: Anti-Blackness, People of Color, and the Struggle for Solidarity (excerpt)
Jun 28
Written By Nimisha Barton
Seven years ago, I interviewed for a faculty position at a small Northeastern school. After a long day of one-on-one meetings, I endured the final dreaded ritual: a dinner with half a dozen faculty members. Towards the end, the conversation drifted from real estate and property taxes to stories of white faculty members’ various encounters with nonwhite folks, specifically with Black women and Latino men. These stories conveyed the fears that nonwhite people inspired in these white individuals, and they followed a pattern: when their cars had broken down unexpectedly or when they found themselves in some unfamiliar town or another, crisis was averted when, in fact, threatening nonwhite Others declined to take advantage…
