Y’know, housesitting here at ABW for a few days has really opened my eyes to how important it is to keep a “safety zone” around discussions of racism. I thought I understood this, intellectually, but the practical experience has been a whole other thing. One of the recent threads started off as a discussion about white privilege, and all it’s taken has been a couple of defensive, passive-aggressive headcases to shift the discussion to What’s Wrong With Black People.

There are a million and a half places in this world for discussions of What’s Wrong With Black People. But thanks to the miracle of modern racism, there are relatively few places where those who seek a better world can discuss What’s Wrong With White People — something that’s kind of important if we’re ever to understand and address things like white privilege. Frankly, there aren’t many places where we can discuss race in any fashion without having the conversation derailed by people who sandwich their vitriol and/or ignorance between the Wonder Bread slices of “free speech” and false openness.

So when I boot someone, it’s not about eliminating disagreeing opinions. Disagreement is useful in any discussion; as long as it’s done in a grown-up and intelligent manner, that’s welcome here. The problems crop up when people from W3BP places roll up with their W3BP rhetoric as if they don’t have plenty of other places to do that. I’ve observed that most of the commenters in this blog are actually OK with that; they’re openminded and kind enough to try, at least once, to point out the flaws in W3BP rhetoric. But when the W3BPers ignore this and demand that their rhetoric be allowed to dominate this space too… well, that’s a bigass problem.

So get the fuck out, W3BP folks. You own the entire conservative media machine, after all. You can go there and vent your spleen on TV, in newspapers, and on hundreds of other blogs whenever you want. This little space, however, is not yours. You don’t have to like that fact or even respect it. What you do have to do is leave it, and this site, the hell alone.

(ABW, girl, you get mad props from me now. In case I forget to say it when you get back… thank you.)