I'm a 90s kid. I grew up listening to rap, watching a lot of sports, and wearing Air Jordans. Might sound silly, but I carried that into adulthood.
Events of the last couple of months have pushed me away from all that. It's this weird sense of alienation I'm feeling from the black community : "You have to support us, but at the same time we don't like you."
And I'm getting that feeling from all levels. Whether it's Nike and the NBA or just local small businesses or restaurants.
I'm a minority myself and during my almost 40 years of living in America, I have never felt this level of hostility and alienation from a group of people (certainly not white people) as I do from the black community these days.
I always try not to stereotype or paint an entire group of people with one brush, but I admit it's getting really tough. And I fear this is the type of climate that breeds TRUE racism.
When I was growing up in the 90s and early 00s, I was always told not to treat people differently based on appearances. I believed them. And I believed MLK when he said to judge people by the content of their character.
But now, the culture says we SHOULD treat people based on their color.