Relatively. Within my home area I could find a black person to help with a sure-fire shoplifting scheme: have my co-conspirator walk around a store, while I fill up my coast with merchandise. I know it works because big-box retail kept my gas tank full through college, and the security guys I worked with were racist assholes. I helped bust one of those schemes because I knew they were gullible. Helped get one of those guys get booted out of that job, in fact; he followed around the local high-school’s long-time, well-respected choral teacher.
Keep in mind that a black African American comes from a place of incredible privilege, compared to someone from the DRC.
And there was nothing more “precious” than coming from a place where I cleaned out chicken houses and hauled hay for gas money in H.S., hauled buckets of water for my grandma because she didn’t have indoor plumbing, be told that I was starting at a distinct disadvantage against other uni students–even against students from less-affluent countries–because the school system I went through really did suck that bad, only to have a lib arts prof who was a female equivalent to Dave Winer (born into academic families, never struggled, never hungry) tell me the highest grade I could earn was a C because I was too privileged.
I already knew the U.S. sucked for non-white, non-straight people, and got to see some of that firsthand. I mean, there’s nothing quite like watching a friend go through anguish after a sexual assault, only to be ridiculed when he turned it in to law enforcement because lol ur a guy and ur gay lol and have women laugh it off as well. Having said that, the way some lib arts profs handle it–punish them white kids as if they’re all affluent suburb kids–end up turning people conservative imho.
