John Griswold
1 min readDec 27, 2022

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Apparently you did not read or did not understand my comment. I'll boil it down a little. The U.S. has a particular brand of racism, based both on the "peculiar institution" that shaped our founding and on the religious chauvinism that led white Christian Americans to regard non-white, non Christians as less than human.

These were systemic institutions as well as widely accepted and practiced regimes of oppression. They were directed by the relatively powerful at the relatively powerless.

You mention the shooters of Ahmad Arbery. Whatever their social status (as home owners and former law enforcement officers they were far from the "bottom rungs") they were members of a racial majority with centuries of history of oppression of racial minorities.

Citing Reverend Wright or Farrakhan is a deflection. Not only are their attitudes rational, given the lifetime of racism they both have faced, but also relatively powerless.

When racism is directed by an empowered majority against a disempowered minority that is a VERY different thing than feelings coming "from the soul of each of us".

In such cases it is both rational and reasonable for the oppressed minority to fear and even hate the oppressive majority. While hating anonymous others is mostly self destructive, the power and harm differential between oppressed and oppressor make those feelings very different, not equivalent, and not equally condemnable.

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John Griswold
John Griswold

Written by John Griswold

Master carpenter, watercolor artist and beat up old jock…owned by Black Lab Bo who considers two tennis balls a minimum mouthful

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