I refuse to feel guilty.  There are many terrible things that happened in the history of our country.  I refuse to feel guilty.  There are many terrible things that happened in the history of the world.  I refuse to feel guilty.  Slavery was absolutely horrible.  I refuse to feel guilty.  White man.  Refuse to feel guilty.  Interested in women of another race.  I REFUSE TO FEEL GUILTY.

"Yep! I said it! I'm EarthJeff!!"

OK, I do have some guilt.  I still feel a twinge of guilt that I never turned in that book report in 5th grade.  I still am uncomfortable knowing that I shoplifted a candy bar when I was 8 years old.  I even still wrestle with the fact that I got ticketed for running a stop sign, immediately moved out of state so I figured that I could ignore it and get away with it, did not care that the letters going to my mom’s address said the fine was increasing and a warrant could be issued for my arrest despite her panic that I was going to be extradited back from North Carolina for this offense.  OK, justice prevails in the end and Michigan got their pound of flesh because when I applied for a program that would include a complete check of my records…. Well…  several phone calls and a large check later… resolved.

Slavery in this country was awful.  Ugly stain on our history.  Does it still need to be an ugly stain on our psyche?  Do we really need to still use it as a reason to have relationships with other races?  Hundreds of years later?  Look, I am a teacher and have heard more lame excuses than you can imagine.  Even my own teenager tried telling his Biology teacher that the dog ate his lab notebook.  Twice.  No lie. But by FAR the lamest thing that I have heard is that black women should not date white men because of slavery.  If that woman chooses not to date outsider her race – for WHATEVER reason – that is certainly her right.  But please, let us stop shouting from the rooftops about how she shouldn’t date a white man because of slavery.

Quit trying to keep her down and quit telling her what to do.  Let her make her own choices.  And finally, I find it interesting that this whole “don’t date each other because of slavery” thing to be only one way and a burden laid on black women, but not on men of both colors. Black men dating white women without this burden being laid upon them is well documented.  White men as well are not  given this either.  I suspect very few white men have been told “Dude, don’t date her… hundreds of years ago.. wow… her ancestors may have been slaves”.  If somebody told me that, I would probably give them the same eye roll that my son got when the dog ate his Biology lab notebook.  Twice.