Crucial point. So many white folks talk about granting humanity to Black people -- talking about "tolerance," "acceptance," -- which reveals the underlying assumption that power/validation belong to white people to hand to other races when they feel it's fit. It's so embedded. https://twitter.com/berniceking/status/1273105155970535424

No Black person needs to hear the patronizing equivalent of "you are valid" from a white person, because validity doesn't belong to white people to bestow. Knowing that is crucial to understanding human rights as inherently equal, not given (or taken away!) by white folks.

This kind of talk -- patronizing, condescending, full of noblesse oblige -- is how you can tell a real white supremacist. Not the hood-wearing kind, just the kind who secretly believe that power and validation belong to white people and everyone else has provisional rights.

I wrote this in the replies but "seat at the table" talk is in the same class as othering microagressions like the infamous "wow your hair is so cool. Can I touch it?" Praising something while paternalistically pointing out that it's weird or rare rather than a human right.

It's the kind of thing people say when they assume not only that all the other "seats at the table" will be filled by white folks, but also that white folks own the table, the chairs, the cutlery and set the menu. Black people are not *guests* in this country. They *built* it.