When I first started to read this article, as a Caucasian Jew, I started to feel defensive. As I continued reading I found myself shaking my head in agreement. I've seen this behavior in clubs, in workplaces, on the streets and just about any public space. I didn't have any connection with people of color until my early teens in junior high school during integration back in the 1960's. I would say that the racism displayed by the white kids stemmed from fear. As a Jew I understood being an outsider and I watched the interactions.Mostly segregation in the lunchroom.I don't remember a lot of fist fights.This was in a working-class Italian, Jewish, Irish community in Brooklyn of all places. As a queer outsider to begin with I started to hang out in the donut shop at lunchtime where the African American girls hung out. We didn't speak much to each other but we danced together. They showed me steps and I followed. I looked forward to lunchtime then.The communication was in the dance.Our differences were there but there was acceptance at least within that hour where we moved our bodies and spirits in good humored appreciation of one another.

It embarrasses me when white people are rude to poc based on an assumption of superiority (an automatic assumption of acceptance is part of feeling superior).Most whites are not used to even thinking about that. I understand that this is not always a conscious assumption, most assumptions aren't.

So, thank you for the article.I'm sorry that white man had the audacity to put his hands on you. I'd like to kick him in his nuts!