What…do …you…call…them…then?

Well, my suggestion is maybe we don't call them anything, not because racism isn't part of the equation (I didn't see anything overt), rather, I don't think that accusation is going to be productive with these folks.

Put it this way, I grew up in Northern Virginia. Not the old south, but within the beltway. I went to a public school likely gerrymandered into existence in the 1950s. I got the message that the Daughters of the Confederacy propagated of Robert E. Lee, ie: that he only chose the South because of his love for Virginia. We were taught he said:

“If Virginia stands by the old Union so will I."

And not that he said:

"The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.”

I still remember going to his childhood home in elementary school. They had a really cool hands on learning exhibit on lath and plaster. While I never empathized with the confederacy, it took a long time for me to deprogram the notion that Robert E. Lee was a reluctant southern hero.

So. I'm trying to engage white folks in maybe a less confrontational way. Because I'm not seeing anything else work.