[Please forgive me if this is a repeat. I posted this before, but it did not show up in the responses.]

….

Thank you for writing this article since it shows how much work is to be done. Insights on day to day race relations told in the first person inviting us to learn about personal views, opinions, lifestyles, and rumors (along with scholarly annotations) have never been so fascinating. I like writers like Ruth Terry! But are my appreciations enough?

I mean, what I recognize in Terry’s writing, though she is not alone in this, is not the cause or the reality of White Space, but the effects of this White Space. Thus, instead of speaking about what this White Space is in itself, it is always reduced to definitions of the frustrated, aggressive, if not resigned, people relations inside such White Spaces: “White spaces can be defined as having an “overwhelming presence of white people and… absence of black people,” Thus, Terry never ends up speaking about what causes this White Space or even what it really is, but more about the ‘effects’ and ‘values’ of race relations inside it: “White Space refers to the “dance” and being “on” to describe assimilating to white expectations of appearance and conduct.(Anderson 2015).

It is a bit like having a bucket and describing what is inside it, not the bucket itself, thus, confusing the container (space) for the contained (people). A classic synecdoche — substitution of the part for the whole , effect for cause — which serves to circumvent the real argument on race and racism and the cause of White Space. This synecdoche may be the reasons for why so many white people can seem confused in being told such a White Space exists, since not only can many not recognize it, but do not know how it got there or what to do about it. What is worse, I would propose, things are not going to get any better in simply telling white people this White Space is really there and they should become ‘conscious’ of their ‘privilege’, ‘de-center’, and to “stop being racist !”. No doubt, there may be some change, but until the cause is addressed such maneuvers remain a therapeutic management of symptoms.

And this is where, unfortunately, my preferences for articles like Ruth Terry’s continually fall short. I am waiting for the day when some one writes, in a public forum, on the cause of race and racism today, not effectsand race-relations. Not the Art of Being Black, but the Science of Being Black —

Until then, I must also admit that I like people who ride bikes, but have absolutely no faith that my preferences will resolve the energy problems of today.

Cheers,

TRG