“Never Have I Ever Been White”

Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under Column as I See 'Em, Media | By Jessica Gross

Ohio State undergrad Everdeen Mason’s column on Mother’s Day was guffaw-worthy, but Mason’s outshone herself this week with a piece on her relationship with her best friend. Mason is black, her best friend is white, and they’re vocally obsessed with being an interracial pair. Other people, though, feel awkward about Mason and her friend’s race-related jokes.

When my best friend and I play “Never Have I Ever,” she says, “Never have I ever been black.”

I, of course, say, “Never have I ever been white.” Then we drink entirely too much to celebrate how ridiculous we are.

Once, we played with a diverse group, and when she did her typical “Never have I ever been black” no one laughed. Everyone stared at us in horror as we downed our beers to wash out the awkwardness.

Mason describes her experiences as a black girl in high school, when she had a crush on a white boy but the rest of the grade was convinced she longed for the only black boy in the grade. In college, the race-based assumptions continued:

When I walk down the street, white boy in tow, the men lined up in front of UDF yell things like “Damn white boy, where you get a fine black girl like that?” and other uncomfortable things. My white boys also like to talk about it. Some of my favorite lines?

“I done dated a black girl once, it was real nice.”

“I think it’s weird that you’ve dated so many white guys, but you’re the only black girl I’ve been with.”

“I made out with a black girl once. It wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

Sorry?

Mason addresses an issue many college students are scared to talk about: race in the real, not just the abstract. Political correctness is good for avoiding true denigration and unfair stereotyping based on race and ethnicity (a good goal for those men in front of UDF). But often, this objective overwhelms people, and instead of thinking critically about it, they stop talking about it altogether: “Don’t mention ‘race.’ Don’t use the word ‘black.’ We’re all people, and we’re colorblind!” This is reductionist. And it doesn’t just prevent people like Mason from casually joking about their races in a way they’re comfortable with, but also denies that people of different races do have different experiences. If we all pretend we’re colorblind, we can’t talk about and understand what those different experiences are. And then, what’s the point of prioritizing diversity in the first place?

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Comments

One Response to ““Never Have I Ever Been White””

  1. Mike Dang on May 30th, 2008 5:00 pm

    The girls in that cartoon look like they’re having waaay too much fun.

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