I personally do not take ZZ Packer's work the same way that this writer does. I don't see the kinda "aaaaw, youse po' white folks have had it soooooo hard, feeling guilty and all....it's all us'n black folks fault. We's not victims at all, no siree' attitude this guy seems to see. I think it's because I have more context. I'm not fighting with myself to justify my own behavior, so I can read about the girl scouts and their starting of a fight because of the rumor of using the n word, not as an indictment of the larger black community, but as of certain black people. Am I making sense? I'm able to section blacks off into parts- these blacks are too radical, these are ok, but whine a bit too much, these are a bit too much blame taking,etc.

I think it's just how our view points are filtered. I think race is important, but this guy acts like the focus of the stories is on race. For example, the story focused on the guy on the debate team is about reconciliation with his father, not this one kid who wants to be in the NBA- that's not the pivot. The girl who is the only black girl in her school, the pivot of the story is her wish to go against her church and be in sit ins. Yes, there is race, and lots of it, but that's not the only thing that's going on. I just think he didn't see the real emphasis of the story. Of course, we all have different filters, and suchlike.