So I've got this friend, S., also known as @ChickGoneBad on the Twitter.
We've been friends for years, having first met through mutual kink friends, and both being goers to Camp Crucible. (Although the last time I saw her face to face was literally years ago.)
Our friendship has really blossomed over Twitter. She's snarky, funny, occasionally spectacularly dirty, witty, and very, very clever.
She's also a few degrees off from everyone else on earth. What I mean is, she's the perennial outsider, or oddball. She is almost the detached observer of our social and societal foolishness.
Every once in a while she posts something, or links to something which is gob-smacking profound.
She did just that today. It's why she's my gratitude today.
The thing she posted is this:
http://www.renegademothering.com/2014/12/09/discovered-white/
It's an essay, written by a white woman, about how she realized she was white, and what that really meant. It's about how racism is alive and well today, and a subtle, pervasive part of society.
It's NOT a prescriptive entreaty to a shallow solution.
It's NOT just bitching and moaning, a complaint.
What it is, is a brilliant observation on the depth and complexity of the problem, and why so many people don't see it, don't get it.
I'm moved, profoundly moved by this essay.
If it wasn't for my friendship with Chickgonebad, if we weren't constantly trading snark, flirting, and kink humor, I wouldn't ever have known about it.
I'm grateful for it, and for her.