Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 02, 2020

Like BD is going to give up Boopsie for a day.

Trudeau is making a point that a lot of people will not want to listen to…

I like how BD is crossing his prosthetic leg over his other leg, seems very natural. Confess I don’t know much about the subject.

I think Chris Rock used that test with himself as the subject.

“No white person would change places with me – and I’m rich!” is how it went.

I wouldn’t want to change places with anyone else, nor would they want to change places with me. We all have our own serious problems.

My nephew related a story to me today about his children’s eye doctor. He was stopped by a stranger who demanded some sort of proof that the man owned the car he was driving. Apparently “driving while black” has become a crime even in my neck of the woods in Canada.

Chris Rock probably has a pretty good life though?

Would Ray want to trade places with any white person? If the answer is “Yes” then we are dealing with some serious self-hate here.

Is BD wearing a shirt with the Walden symbol and sponsored by that famous brand?

As messes go, that’s a formidable one!

Well, I don’t wanna trade places with Bill Cosby, and he’s RICH BIGLY, with a legacy to boot. Mostly because I don’t want to be 93 years old…..

I’d trade places with Chris Rock! For one day, on a private island. (Assuming he’s THAT rich.) I’d like to hang out on a beach without bursting into flames. If it’s any less private/restricted than that, no.

I’d say there’s two points made here. One is that BD, with his political beliefs, doesn’t see the problem Ray is talking about because in the GOP media it doesn’t exist. The second point is that Ray is such a close friend that BD genuinely doesn’t get that Ray is talking about a general problem affecting black people because he only sees the friend, not the skin colour.

If Chris Rock asked me that question I would say yes in a minute.

Ah, the Pre-Trump world! Absolute bliss!

Birds of a feather flock together. Then they build walls, and defend them, keeping all the good worms for themselves.

B.D. is correct. And yes, I realise that’s not Trudeau’s point. But no one is to be blamed for your life’s difficulties or failures. Sorry. And the thought experiment is stupid: it would depend on the other person’s life up to that point and the decisions he has made, not on his race. Ask yourself, would LeBron James really want to be a poor white farmer? I think not. Let the intolerance begin.

My first thought was, ‘NO MASKS??’

BD has shown the most personal development of any character in this vast cast. I think Trudeau realized the arc he was on when he decided to finally remove BD’s helmet.

For a day? I would say yes. Then I would begin to understand, which is something I can never fully do as a white man.

This. This is It.

I would trade places with Chris Rock in a heartbeat. He can see that being white ain’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and I won’t sunburn in the tropical paradises I would spend away his money.

Guess he truly IS “colorblind!”XD

wow. it seems as though the consensus here is that POC are no worse off than white people, and if they are, it’s because of their personal problems? i guess it’s true what they say about liberals: they’ll put out BLM signs and mouth platitudes, but they prefer the status quo.

I’m really puzzled by how someone who is white is expected to spend a day in the place of someone who is black. It’s bizarre, because the only way of doing it would be to ‘black up’ which the same people who would be saying ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ would also say would be incredibly offensive?

I mean, I know it’s rhetoric, but beyond demonstrating a level of smug superiority I don’t get why it would be said in a serious or even friendly discussion to anyone, expecting a reasonable reply.

Which in BD’s case was neatly sidestepped…

Well I would say I’d like to have Chris Rock’s brain, but that sounds a bit too much like “Get Out.”

GBT, for the love of dog, please tell me that BD is not drinking again. That’s some kind of artisanal cola, right?

You should watch “Trading Places”. Drives the point home.

How much of his issues could be related to his race? Discrimination plays a role too. Sleeping on a couch? Why? What is the story behind having no place to live, for example. This is not about excuses, we know that discrimination exists.

I also have something about me that causes instant judgement by 90% of Americans. It can’t be hidden in any face to face meeting and has been with me since I was born. It does suck schweaty balls to be judged before you ever meet someone.

In the early seventies, Mike Doonesbury asked a black student he was tutoring something like, “If you could become white, would you?” And I think the final response was “actually, that’s a stupid question, man”.

And, worse that that, he also has Athlete’s Feet.

If you want to make that point, you probably shouldn’t try it with someone who’s in an actual better place than you.

Color-of-skin vs content-of-character. And so it goes.

It’s an oversimplification to think that a person’s individual choices, and ONLY those choices determine how their own life will turn out.

A person’s individual choices DO HAVE a partial effect on the overall result of one’s own life. But it’s not the only determining variable. No one exists in a vacuum. Other people’s choices also affect an individual life outcome. Pile on top of existing in a human network the fact that some level randomness is always at play in our dynamic universe.

The embarrassing partof this for me is that it took me 30 years to figure it out…