General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: #NotRacists Be Like: The Top 10 Phrases Used by People Who Claim They Are Not Racist [View all]moriah
(8,311 posts)... but there's two issues with mentioning your dating past as some measure of proof you're not racist.
First, there were a hell of a lot of racists screwing black women during slavery. It's the primary reason there were so many mixed people before abolition. Obviously one can have intercourse with or date a person and not actually respect them -- happens all the time, actually. Not saying that's how it was with you and the lady in your past, of course.... but while obviously black people didn't smell quite as bad to Thomas Jefferson as he publicly said they did, black vagina didn't cure him of racism. Actually, his use of those women for that purpose highlights his racism.
Second.. there *is* that history there -- that white people weaponized interracial relationships from our position of power, with black women being raped for profit since kids of slaves were slaves and black men getting lynched on a white woman's word that she felt at all threatened. It's not like it was ever dangerous for *us* to date outside our race, yet "not-racists" often talk of having a past interracial relationship like it was an experience worthy of being labeled a Profile in Courage. So a white person essentially bragging about a sexual conquest of a black person doesn't exactly show we've outgrown that privileged view of interracial relationships.