Not a joke: The New York Times has an advice column about how to 'cure' white skin privilege

Rich Terrell

Monica Showalter  . . . "You can't make this stuff up:

Dear Sugars,

I’m riddled with shame. White shame. This isn’t helpful to me or to anyone, especially people of color. I feel like there is no “me” outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity. I feel like my literal existence hurts people, like I’m always taking up space that should belong to someone else.

I consider myself an ally. I research proper etiquette, read writers of color, vote in a way that will not harm P.O.C. (and other vulnerable people). I engage in conversations about privilege with other white people. I take courses that will further educate me. I donated to Black Lives Matter. Yet I fear that nothing is enough. Part of my fear comes from the fact that privilege is invisible to itself. What if I’m doing or saying insensitive things without realizing it?

Another part of it is that I’m currently immersed in the whitest environment I’ve ever been in.

"Apparently, this is real, and not some joke put on by rightwing satirists. No satirist could make up something this bizarre in its minute self-loathing and expect to be believed.

"The panel of lefty columnists answer her with stereotypical soothingness -- there, there, dear -- and advise her to pick up the torch for social justice warrior-hood - to relieve herself of her white skin privilege affliction. Only by becoming a SJW will she be redeemed." . . .