"I have black friends"

Who else remembers that phrase from the 90s and early 00s? If you do, you're old enough to remember that it became a joke. A meme before memes were a thing. If you're not old enough, well 30 years ago, White people still noticed just as much as they do today, though the conversation around it was different. A White guy would think to himself that he wouldn't mind having a black friend who was like Carleton or Steve Urkel, or even one like Eddie Winslow or Will. But in real life, most of the black guys they actually met are more likely to stick a knife in their belly and steal their CD player. The 90s was an interesting time for race stuff, because there was a surge in the prominence of the 'friendly black guy' theme in media. A ton of sitcoms and cartoons started introducing harmless lovable goofy black friends and black families that were just like everyone else. At one point I think every show on TGIF was a friendly black family.

And White people ate that shit up and there was a time when the average White person was at least open to the idea of have normal relationships with blacks, if they were as friendly, civilized, law abiding, and decent as the ones shown on TV. And some were. We have a few right here on KiA2 that are.

The phrase 'but I have black friends' started as a genuine expression. There were White people who noticed that the vast majority of blacks were a lot more like the Rodney King rioters, and steered clear of them, but that the ones that weren't were pretty ok and fine, and had no problem establishing relationships with them. And that was a huge problem to the Left. The Left's entire premise of 'White Racism' relied on the supposition that racists were all a bunch of ignorant, low IQ, knuckle dragging yokels who couldn't think their way out of a paper bag, while they of course were wise and intelligent. While the White Racists were blowing up mailboxes with firecrackers and fishing for catfish with their hands and saying 'nigger', they of course were in school learning and thinking and just being better.

A White Racist having black friends blows that entire argument out of the water. Because it means he's capable of judgement, discernment, of holding a set of criteria in his head and holding others against it, and allowing some to pass if they met the test. The White Racist is supposed to be some dumb rube who isn't capable of evaluating people as individuals or holding complex ideas about socialization and behavior in their heads. So when a White Racist does in fact do exactly that, it shows that they might have a point.

Notice that 'I have black friends' was never actually argued against. It was just turned into a joke. You'd have racist caricature characters in movies and TV shows be interrupted by the smart leftist who would say "Oh let me guess, you have black friends? You all say that.". It was preemptively turned into a gotcha catch phrase. So even if you did have black friends, you couldn't just say that because you'd get the 'oh of course, one more White Racist saying he has black friends' response. They cut the legs out from under it on purpose so that they wouldn't have to address it by its merits.

If you let the White Racists have their 'I have black friends', then other people would hear that and think 'you know what, he's right. He hates a lot of black people, but I do see that he's pretty cool with those two black dudes who are into video games or DnD. Maybe there's something about how they act that makes him cool with them but not all the rest....maybe there's something about all the rest that makes them....' and the normie observe goes down the same rabbit hole of noticing. And the Left could not have that. They had to maintain their iron wall of "All racists are ignorant braindead shitheads who make no good points and have no good reasons, and you'd better not doubt that". Allowing a racist to demonstrate that there was actually some pretty shrewd, logical, and complex thought process behind it risked toppling the whole game.

The political landscape we live in now is one where "racist" is losing its teeth as a pejorative. A lot of people aren't scared of being called racist like they were a decade or two ago. But it's still just a hazy middle point between where we were, and where we need to be. Racism as a concept has yet to be widely adopted and acknowledged as having actually good and logical points. Not being afraid of being called racist is not the same as widespread mainstream acceptance that certain cultures don't mix well, and culture is downstream from genetics to a large degree.

We are not yet at the point where not only is racism no longer an effective attack word, but something even normal people on the street go 'well yeah, different races are different, and I like how some are more than others. If you personally act more like the ones I like, I'll be fine with you. But you probably won't and I probably won't in turn. What's wrong with that?'. That's where we need to be to eventually start fixing problems. We need to be at a point where you could pluck any random person off the street and their opinion is more or less 'well of course Haitians and Somalis aren't like us, and they shouldn't be here'. That is not simply not being afraid of being called racist, that is something much stronger.

And we aren't there yet. People aren't as afraid of being called racist, but they aren't yet to the point where they see the idea of it itself, being able to establish a list of behavioral and social criteria in their head as acceptable, letting the handful who pass it into the tent and rejecting the majority who don't with a clear conscience and smile, as totally normal and expected. Where you can say 'of course I have black friends. They passed the test. Most don't, and they can fuck off' without hesitation.