Dear Racists: You Are Not As Smart As You Think You Are

I wrote a short essay about race and ethnicity in the George Zimmerman trial.  It was published on Salon.  If you have not read it yet, I encourage you to do so, both because the rest of this post will not make much sense without it, and because, if you’ll pardon my bragging, it’s pretty good.

Most of the comments on it are quite… pointed, shall we say?  I’ve received a handful of really lovely, thoughtful, supportive emails from some readers, but since this is the Internet, most of the feedback has been people who are displeased.  Here is one email I found in my inbox when I stepped off the train in Sydney a couple hours ago (copied verbatim):

So your article is Zimmerman Hispanic or White is absolutely racist and full of vitriol from a clearly anger hispanic who thinks they are white. Yet, doesn’t want to be white because we who follow the LAW are supremacists.

You as a person are vile, and an embarrassment to the hardworking Cuban community. How DARE YOU vilify us White people. You most ungrateful curmudgeon. It was WHITES who built this nation, that Hispanics FLOCK TOO to escape people like Castro et al.

Stop talking about “white privelege” and thank Jesus  you are in the USA with a system of laws that WORK.

Pathetic hack journalist

 

It’s rather vindicating when those who are attempting to argue against you wind up proving your point instead.  Also, I would encourage anyone who thinks we live in a “post-racial” world to try writing about race on the Internet, and see how quickly the epithets start flying.  There is at least one death threat in the comments at Salon.  The idiots are quick to rage, and slow to think.

In other news, Australia has been a remarkable experience.  I’ll have more to say about that this weekend.