RACISM AS A SUBTEXT

The white man said he did not have to continue being friendly with a Puerto Rican man; and not because there were major contradictions between the two of them, who had been friends before for quite a few years. After listening to his reasons, it was obvious, that he wanted to prove to himself that he did not have to be friends with a Puerto Rican man simply because the man was, oh well, a Puerto Rican; but now he felt the need to separate himself from political correctness. That meant for him he could freely dislike people based on group identity, though he would not recognize it as the real reason. Stephen Miller said to a Mexican American friend in Junior High School, that the following year, in High School he did not want to hang out with Latinos. He was clearer and more honest than the man previously quoted. In the age of anti-identity movements some people behave in strange ways, in order to feel strong about themselves, they need to show that they are not racists.  All along, it was not the humanity or joy of life, but the ethnicity what attracted him to the other man, and instead of facing his own true motives, he came up with other reasons. The story reminds me of Truman Capote and his relationship with the very rich women who used to hang out with him. When asked why had he written about them in the short story “La Cote Basque”, he answered, (my paraphrasing) “Did they think I was their puppet. They knew I was a writer”.