This is an excellent article and you make a compelling case - but one I think needs to be challenged if only to draw out the strengths and weaknesses in your argument.
Firstly your article makes the assumption that black people and white people think and behave like a homogenous group who share the same aim and objective. I don't think this is the case. This is an important point - because in order to be 'anti-racist' - we first have to have a definition of what 'racism' is. That may be very clear in your mind, but across society (and across social media in particular) - the word 'racist' has come to mean whatever the person using it wants it to mean. That is true regardless of the skin colour. Often when the word is used, the real meaning is 'You disagreed with me or the prevailing world view'.
Such subjectivity is dangerous.... because when a word is overused it ceases to have any meaning. If everything someone does can be labelled racist then what choice do they have? Action is racist. Inaction is racist. Well meaning white people then shut down and switch off - a form of learned helplessness. I'd even go as far as to say that it is impossible in the eyes of some people for white people to be 'anti-racist'.
What you've talked about so eloquently in this piece is the solution - and it isn't 'being woke'. It's being reflective and interpersonal and integrating. It's about intelligent people having complicated discussions about personal matters in which the common humanity experienced by both people outweighs the discussion of skin colour. 'Being Woke' doesn't help with that, because it centres the psychological thought proceses of both people on what differentiates them rather than what unites them. Anyone who is 'good' feels the need to demonstate their awareness of these differences and will work at anti-racism - but that work is performative at best and lacks real insight. You want to combat racism, you have to get people to think - and in order to do that, you have to get them to stop focussing on 'being on the good side'. Racism is a complex issue that can't be undone by good wishes.
I'd like to both agree with and challenge your first point. The majority of white people do have racist tendencies. Of course they do - but this is only half the thought process. All groups of people have an 'in-crowd' thinking and create 'out-groups'. This is human nature.... and whilst those are often around race lines, this isn't exclusively the case. See the Rape of Nanking, the Rwandan Genocide and 1930s Germany for examples of this in action where skin colour wasn't a factor. If you're trying to end in-group and out-group thinking, you're doomed to failure. It's hard wired into all our primate brains. What white people label as 'reverse racism' is non-sensical, it isn't, but it comes from the same place. it's 'in-group/out-group' bias, and without historical context and education - they will feel like the same thing.
In the USA you have a real in-group/out group problem around race that needs serious work at Governmental level. A focus on identity politics by well meaning liberals of all colours is making the situation worse rather than better. It's a short-sighted feel good approach to a complex intergenerational problem. Sadly it's also one that is making the world worse for non-white people. And in answer to your last question, whether I'm white, black or mixed race is neither here nor there. I'm a penguin for the forseeable - what I want is intelligent discourse, compassion and curiosity. I want the conversation to shift away from race, not because it's uncomfortable, but because it's counter-productive to your stated aims.
