Bronson, I was right there with you. He seemed to perpetuate systemic racism, mansplaining, telling her what she thought, etc. Trying to force her to take a less nuanced position, oversimplifying, etc. She started by defending a black woman who said that she didn’t love white people following her every move, saying that what she writes isn’t for white people. He got his feelings hurt, and decided that she was being racist. So, he took Dr. Flowers' very understandable position that sometimes black people want to write about their life experience without white people adding their 2 cents, and stretched that unto her wanting to create an ethno-state. He feels uncomfortable being part of the race that is in power,.so he kept telling her that he isnt.

I really found it frustrating that he didn’t understand that telling her how black people shouldn’t want a place away from their oppressors, because we aren’t the oppressors, is exactly why we still have work to do, and lots of it.

I feel that if Germans won WW2, took over power in America, and had several generations of kids, he might get it. German people around the same age would say, “Hey, we aren’t those Germans! That was our great grandparents, not us. We’re cool!” And Vaush would think, right, I know you think so, but you telling me I shouldn’t get to escape you and the rest of my oppressors some of the time is a big part of the problem….and yes, that is taking race out of it, because he really wanted race to be left out.

Listen to more black people. Don’t presume to speak on their behalf, especially without understanding their pain and their anger…you don’t get to say that you do if you try and discredit their position. Yeah, it feels uncomfy being part of the race that has done so much shit. So, please, listen more…try and sit with those feelings and understand that it is a fraction of what black people still experience.

I am a white woman. I understand that even if I am only second generation american, I benefit from the system. Please, just listen more. I do not think Dr. Flowers is racist. She just wants white people to listen to black people when they say: Hey, I realize that you didn’t take part in slavery, or jim crowe, but you don’t understand our struggle, so please don’t accuse us of being Nazis if we feel annoyed when white people comment on our black stories.

I also liked him a lot more than I did before this interview. He really lost me when she was just talking with educated eloquence and he snapped at her not to insult him with jargon…Really smacked of a percieved power imbalance.