Why do you demonize white women? As one, I didn’t have any real role models growing up. My father (a white man) was a violent sociopath. You don’t think we have suffered at all because of the sexism of men of all colors? When I was raped in college, the police told me not to report this because no one would believe me. When I was mugged in WDC, I had to beg cops to take my report. When my father tried to kill me for the fifth time, I was told it was a ‘family thing.”

How did I react to Kobe Bryant’s death? I think that is a tragedy for a number of reasons. He was A role model for a number of people who found his guidance helpful. It looked like he had grown into that role and no one can deny how much he supported women in sports. Because you brought up the rape allegations, you cannot really think that sports figures seem to assault women on the regular and often they get away with it. Do the charges against Bryant nullify the good he did? Of course not. For many women of all colors, decades or more of being told if they are raped or assaulted sexually that we are to blame for it means that sometimes the topic strikes a nerve.

Now, I do not know what racism feels like but I have seen it all around me. I support the Black Lives Matter movement because for too long. Neruda Williams had it right. Too many people view African Americans (and Africans) just as she said. And that hurts to think about. It hurts when we ignore conflicts in Africa because “it is a dark continent.”

I lived in NYC when Guiliani was mayor. I was there when Amadou Diallo was shot at 42 times for getting out his wallet. Or when Amner Luoima was sodomized by the police. I know more than a few people who have been detained by the police for doing a host of things “while black.”

When I first heard of Bryant’s death, after the shock wore off, I did think about the charges but my thoughts didn’t end there. I read more about him and like every other human on the planet, he was fallible. Personally, I have made a lot of mistakes. It looked to me that he worked on himself and decades change everyone. I reevaluated my response and saw what a tragedy his was and was embarrassed by my first thought (rape remains a sore subject for me).

You want white women to treat you as humans. I can’t speak for all white women but that’s the same thing I want.