If old white men feel maligned, they should take their own advice to minorities.

[Armstead]

25. It's a matter of how these subjects are brought up.

Our exchange yesterday was not about whether or not it is "legitimate" to bring up the subject of race, etc.

It was the dismissiveness of an entire demographic group (and the tendency of some to assume that criticisms of President Obama always have a racial undercurrent). This approach is a mirror image of what the GOP does in reverse. Divide and conqueror.

If one is trying to change social attitudes and oppressive social systems, it is important to first recognize that demographic groups are not monolithic. Society is a collection of individuals, who have a wide range of attitudes, levels of awareness and motivations. That also applies to demographic groups whose collective actions and attitudes one might collectively consider to be victimizers as well as those who have suffered because of that.

President Obama himself recognizes these complexities, and has addressed it, such as in his great speech during the campaign when he was attacked for his affiliations with Rev. Wright.

Any effort to change oppressive attitudes, behavior and policies -- and the systems that result -- has to accept people on their own terms as a starting point. Being accusatory and/or telling people they have to instantly transform themselves to fall into a certain mold of thought and behavior only alienates people, including those who are inherently sympathetic. It is no different than white people telling black people that they have to become white to raise themselves up.

And, in a larger sense, it requires a recognition that to lift everyone up requires lifting everyone up, and focusing on the systemic institutional problems and economic systems that are much larger and oppressive to the majority, regardless of color, ethnic background and gender.

For example, in the 18th to mid-20th Century, Britain was a colonial empire that subjugated, exploited and did some awful things to the "colonies" they acquired and ruled over.

It's fair to say, that the British Empire did a lot of damage and colonialism was a fundamentally bad system. However, it would be wrongheaded to say that the British people were by extension, all guilty of being members of a Colonial Empire and were terrible exploiters individually

In fact, many British citizens were exploited and abused themselves (read Charles Dickens)....Or were at least not part off the problem and included people who supported reforms to the system (Or would have if they had the knowledge of the realities of colonialism, and access to a larger reform movement).

Therefore it is a totally inaccurate generalization to say that if a person was British automatically meant they were part of the system of exploitation and abuse, and was therefore guilty of the evils inflicted by the British Empire. In fact, it was a larger system that was put into place and run by a particular segment of the population of Britain.

It is not much different than using a broad brush to portray everyone who is white, and especially of a certain age group, as being the cause of current problems.

It is a complex issue with a lot of nuances. There were (and are) people who had (have) widely differing shades of opinion and levels of knowledge about the realities of the system, which also shapes their role and opinion of it. There were people in Britain who had a sense of patriotism and pride in the Empire, for example, who did not necessarily know about the actual facts of what that really meant.

There are hard-nosed racists and sexists. There are also well meaning people who may behave or think in ways that are racist or sexist, but not because of bad intent. It is more a matter of lack of knowledge and awareness.

Telling people that progress will only be made when their demographic group becomes insignificant and/or dies off is not the way to gain their support for solving and rectifying legitimate grievances.