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The strategy behind subtle actions and behaviors initiated by Black people in places and events where they are the sole (or one of the few) Black people in nearly/all-White environments that are intended to establish goodwill and counter negative beliefs and biased cultural narratives. The long-term goal being to create more opportunities for future Black people to be more readily welcomed, accepted, and even invited into these places, such as neighborhoods, workplaces, social groups, etc.
Aside from just being a nice Southern thing, the other reason I give a friendly wave at every passing car when I walk around this neighborhood is that it's basically all-White. So when one of the residents sees another Black man walking around here, they have subconscious wealth of positive associations to draw upon to hopefully offset any latent biases that might make the experience more threatening to them. If you're familiar with Dune, think of this as the Brotherhood Protectiva.
The subtle actions and behaviors initiated by Black men in places and events where they are the sole (or one of the few) Black people in nearly/all-White environments that are intended to establish goodwill and counter negative beliefs and biased cultural narratives. The long-term goal being to create more opportunities for future Black men (this is not necessarily to exclude Black women who certainly have had challenges but historically, men have had a very strong race-based headwind to navigate in American society) - to be more readily welcomed, accepted, and even invited into these places, such as neighborhoods, workplaces, social groups, etc.
Aside from being friendly, the other reason I give a friendly wave at every car that goes past me when I walk around this basically all-White neighborhood is so that when one of them sees another Black man walking around here, they have subconscious wealth of positive associations to draw upon to hopefully offset any latent biases that might make the experience more threatening to them. If you're familiar with Dune, think of this as the Brotherhood Protectiva.