"Not ALL White Americans ...!"

When I wrote my last post, I suppose I should have included the obligatory "Not all ...!" disclaimer. Are all white Americans armed to the teeth? Do all white Americans react to even minor slights with violence?

I don't, and neither do my friends or family. So there's that. There must be millions of us -- tens of millions -- who are just as decent and civilized as I am ... or, if you prefer other adjectives, as polite and weak and timid and passive. When I talk about our national character, it doesn't literally refer to every single person in the exact same way.

But that also doesn't mean it's false. For my money, the best brief discussion of the concept of national character is found in a couple of chapters at the beginning of Part Two of Milton Mayer's classic, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945. He makes the argument that there is such a thing as national character, even though millions of any nationality won't exhibit it and even though the people who talk most about such things are generally racists or national supremacists of one kind or another. But even if you leave such deplorable people out of consideration, and even when you make allowances for all the exceptions ... there's something. And that something is worth talking about.

So no, not all Americans are violent. Not all men are rapists. Not all whites are racists. And so on. Of course all of those qualifications are always true. We get it. But whites still need to be extra sensitive to racism. Men still need to be extra careful about sexual consent.

And Americans ...? I have no lessons to teach. No curriculum to offer. No 12-step plan that will make us all better human beings. So I don't ask my fellow Americans for anything except awareness and self-knowledge.

My only other advice, I guess, is  ... just don't cross us.

I'm sorry.