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.
I am white and grew up in the 70's and listened to Motown as well as rock. I never looked at a person's skin color as a determining factor for my opinions. Now I do. If I see a black person my first thought is "do they support BLM?". If I suspect or find out they do, my fight/flight instinct takes over as I immediately know I'm in the presence of my enemy.
If I see weird colored hair or hipster fashion my guard goes up. Haha. Tribal instincts are a double-edge sword for sure.
That's a given, lol.