I recently had a conversation with a few of my European and white American friends about their experiences in Ghana. One said, "Being here has made me more of a racist. I'm getting a little defensive". They expressed that they are constantly being reminded that they are different and that it causes them to feel a little bitter. They're tired of people overpricing them because they are "obronis" and don't like being mistreated. This was absolutely fascinating to me, because it is almost as if they were having a little taste of the resentment many people of color feel in the Western world. "That is a similar feeling for African-Americans" I said. My white American friend said, "What do you mean?". I continued, "When you experience racism enough, it's so easy to feel resentment and anger towards an entire group of people, and it becomes more and more difficult to think of people as individuals instead of generalizing entire groups". They nodded their heads. "But there are still a lot of nice people here too--it isn't everyone" they started to say. No--it never is, but it only takes so much ripeness to make any type of fruit bitter.
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