You know, I usually enjoy reading long-winded comments where people share their points of view, because I acknowledge I may be biased and I hate when people look at other people through their own lens, or remain ignorant of other people's attitudes towards them, so I always try to check for that.

But when I read comments like yours, I inevitably get to a point where I remember, wait a second-

I'm a Polish guy working in the UK. My country was never a colonial power, it served as Europe's refuge for Jews and Muslims throughout the middle ages, then it was erased from existence and literally colonized by three foreign powers in the 19th century, went on to survive three foreign invasions and two genocides during WWII, and achieved independence from foreign oppression in my lifetime. A foreign oppressor which recently randomly invaded one of its other neighbours. I grew up on a Soviet-built council estate, almost got stabbed by a random guy at the age of twenty, and the country I currently work in largely hates and would happily kick out all Eastern Europeans.

None of this would matter, except... What the hell am I supposed to be sorry for? Why in the world should I care about appeasing someone else's paranoia? And even if, what point is this guilt trip even supposed to serve?

I always thought I was on the same side of the wall as other immigrant/minority communities and identified with them more than the majority Brits/Americans, because despite all the ethnic tensions, we're all in this mess together, right? I loved hanging out and making friends with people of different backgrounds and it felt awesome, it felt like we're all in this mess together and boundaries are artificial. But apparently I was being covertly racist passive-aggressive or something, because the melanin level is all that matters these days, you had to come along and remind me that society built the wall in a different place I expected. It's not that your point of view is disagreeable, I just literally can't be pigeon-holed into it no matter how much I would love to.

Maybe some things don't have hidden meaning. Maybe I just see Beyonce as yet another rich privileged celebrity who does things every now and then to get attention but I personally couldn't care less about the Black Panther theme, people have respect for all sorts of groups which other people might not like.

Sorry. You needed to rant. So did I.