I was fascinated to read the following news item in recent days. I’ve changed a few words here and there, but nothing essential:
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson has defended the removal of training materials for housing providers to prevent anti-black discrimination, arguing that the presence of black people in homeless shelters makes others feel uncomfortable.
Responding to a question by Illinois Democratic Representative Mike Quigley during a House subcommittee hearing, Carson said: “There are some white people who said they were not comfortable with being in a shelter [with] somebody who had a very different anatomy.”
Carson said: “We obviously believe in equal rights for everybody, including the black community. But we also believe in equal rights for the white people in the shelters, and their equal rights. So, we want to look at things that really provide for everybody and doesn’t impede the rights of one for the sake of the other.”
When asked by Quigley how protecting black individuals impinges the rights of others, Carson continued: “There are some white people who said they were not comfortable with the idea of being in a shelter, being in a shower, and somebody who had a very different anatomy.”
Ben Carson has a point. Black people are, in fact, anatomically different from white people. They are a different color all over their bodies!
And although Carson was too polite to say it, some white people feel sexually threatened when they are forced to share a shower with black people. Even if that feeling is based entirely on cultural myths, we still need to respect it, right?