Black people fear racism white people are scared of looking racist

I was listening to a presentation on world hunger tonight and all the images of hungry people were people of colour. The white people in the pictures were helpers. One young white woman asked an uncomfortable question 'I was at Gorton a very poor region in Manchester and some of the people didn't think we should give aid to Africa as we don't have enough ourselves.' Everyone shifted uneasily in the room. This was a room of 26 people 20 of whom were white middle class university educated people in their early 20’s, the rest of us were non-white. Only one woman of African origin sat there feeling uncomfortable. As usual the presenter gave a vague answer about being human, helping, about love. 

I wasn't disappointed by the answer I almost expected it. It is more important not to look racist than be racist or let it fester. While people like my friend are at the receiving end of these comments and in lots of cases violence white liberalism prefers to take the moral high ground. It is easy to say to the person of colour we don't think of you as less human - this is patronising, our position and our protests come from experience. We have experienced discrimination; sometimes it is a slight twitch, an uncomfortable silence or even a patronising comment spoken slowly. When all you see of yourself is as a hungry person all the powerful see of us is our hunger and helplessness it forms a deep association in our mind. Images are powerful and subconsciously affect how we perceive the world around us. For those in non dominant positions those images are the only representations they see of themselves and if they are negative representations they create an

I live in a poor neighbourhood full of poor white people who are constantly vilified and called lazy none of which is true. I can see why they hate me, I am the new toy in the hands of the liberal, and I know I will be discarded similarly. It hurts me that something as simple as this is never explained but left to fester.

I don’t hate or fear the people of Gorton they have very real concerns which I feel must be answered rationally without  resorting to mere sentimentalism.