[ShredKazoo]

As I stated, I've had the experience of feeling self-conscious in a group where I was the only white person (or one of just a few). That never happened when I was a kid, but it has happened a few times as an adult.

With regard to the Cholitas thought experiment, I think my major source of discomfort is that at least one of them would look at me and think to herself "he's a patriarchical colonizer" and feel hostility from that. I'd feel more comfortable if I had a friend in the group who could vouch for me. Otherwise I'd worry the Cholitas didn't want me to be there.

I suppose that works in reverse as well -- an ethnic person might look at a group of white people and worry that one of them was present at Jan 6 or what have you.

What I miss from my childhood was the feeling that we're all in this together as human beings and race just isn't important. In the time & place I grew up, if someone was to start denigrating others on the basis of race, everyone would consider them to be an unimportant wacko. In that cultural context I wouldn't feel as much apprehension joining a group of Cholitas.

[switchbak]

I strongly agree. Trading in the "shared humanity" approach for one where we self segregate and pre-emptively expect and search for discrimination at all moments seems like the opposite of progress.