What white people aren’t supposed to say

It’s no secret. There is a whole catalog of comments white people aren’t supposed to make about black people.

However, black people, in the current culture, are free to say all sorts of things about white people.

On a recent sports talk show, former NBA player, Paul Pierce, made a few remarks about the white female basketball star and phenomenon, Caitlin Clark.

I’m paraphrasing Pierce: I thought she was playing so well because she was just going up against little white girls, but then I saw her play last night against black women and I was really surprised. She was terrific.

Pierce was being honest. No problem. He was describing how he felt. Was he being racist? Maybe. But who cares? He said what he said. And in the aftermath, there was no blowback I could find.

But then I should be able to say something like this: You know, I heard about this black software engineer in Chicago who’s supposed to be a real genius. Everybody’s heard about him. But I thought, you know he’s probably seems very good because people are comparing him to other black software engineers in the industry, but alongside a really talented white tech guy he wouldn’t stand out at all. However, at a recent conference in California, he made a presentation alongside very good white software pros and I have to admit, the black guy did very, very well. I was really surprised. He’s exceptionally good.

Right? Can’t I say that?