Alison, your ability to pull on the thread of American racism and its tentacles is much needed. As somone with a whole series on clichés, in this and your piece on what white people say to try to show they're not racist I learned many things and now I'm on the alert for "hidden" racist terminology. Years ago, Rev. Louis Farrakhan was on Phil Donahue (I'm serious, catch it on YouTube if you haven't already). Three New York housewives swore their parents had raised them to be color-blind and they were insulted and scared by the Reverend's call for Black Independence. 'Madam,' he said politely (I paraphrase), 'it's all well and good your parents tried to raise you that way and I commend them for that spirit. It's just not possible. As for being scared, history shows that I have so much more to fear from them than they or you do from me.' He turned the idea on its head in the way that you do - he took "conventional" thinking and tore off its mask until the truth was made plain. And it still won't be heard by many - adults don't change their minds often, if at all. But the truth still needs to be shouted from the rooftops, and on the pages of medium.com.