I'm Not a Racist, I Have a Black Friend...Well, I HAD a Black Friend.

Ok, lets say you're a white person and for years you've surrounded yourself exclusively with other white people. Then suddenly you thought, "I should diversify my friends." You soon find a black friend to befriend. That black friend then lets you know that because you've only had white friends you may not realize just how different it may be to have a black friend. You think you're pretty progressive and say "I want to be better, let me know when I'm being problematic." The black friend says "ok." Now the next few months go by. Your white friends are just as easy to be around as usual, but your one new black friend keeps chiming in, way more than you'd assumed they would, to let you know when you're being racist or problematic. More time pass. You are starting to feel like your black friend is more "difficult" than your white friends. You start to question why you even want someone in your life who thinks you're a racist. Your white friends clearly don't. You're one of the good ones, your black friend should be nicer and more grateful.

So you eventually push that black friend out of your life, which then forces you to choose to either-

A. Stick with your white friends because it's just easier and they have proven to be tried and true, plus you have so many.

or

B. Find a person of color who is less vocal about pointing out your flaws.

Because it's pretty hard to come off as a racist if there is no one there to be racist toward or to call you out when you are actually being racist.

And this is why diversity is BULLSHIT without an actual system that acknowledges and supports the differences that entails having people of color around. Diversity isn't bringing in people of color and then FORCING them to assimilate to white spaces that were systemically not made for them. It's a such a compromising position to put people of color in. To have the power to hand pick the exact kind of person of color that fits perfectly within the white system that you have created and have no intention of changing, instead of changing the system that have excluded people of color for so long isn't diversity, it is tokenism. Know the difference.