Mudcat is a good practice sandbox for Life Skills 101. One of the reason people need Life Skills 101 is because all people are different, and Life requires bridging across the differences to acheive common purposes -- like, for example, survival.
-Amos

I agree with this point.

However, one of the points I was trying to make is that sometimes I come to Mudcat to discuss political subjects and other subjects and {but} find that race has been introduced into a particular topic that I didn't think would be about race. I'm forewarned when I read a thread whose topic is about race. But when the topic is something like "Hillary [Clinton] Blows A Fuse", it seems more likely to me that the subject of race-with all its challenging, energy draining permutations-would not be included as part of that discussion. It's true that I can ignore that topic. But if I do so I know that it is unlikely that anybody else who is Black will address the points that were made and in my opinion should be addressed. And there have been threads that I've opened on race where posters have written something to the effect "I wonder what Azizi has to say about this". I don't like this WWAS {what would Azizi say} point of view, and sometimes I don't even post to what I call "Black threads". At least I say that I'm not going to post to them, but sometimes end up doing so because I feel that somebody Black should provide a Black perspective. And-unfortunately-I'm usually in a position of "if not me, then who?"

So, yes, these are Life 101 moments. But in some ways it's like being confronted with pop quizzes when you least expect them.

And I suppose that being one of less than a handful of [publicly acknowledged] Black people on Mudcat is similar in some ways to being one of the small group of Mudcat posters who are Republican.

To all the Republicans on Mudcat who hold down the fort and add their voice/s in this forum made of of mostly liberal {if not lefty} folkies, in that regard if not in any other besides our shared humaness, you have my sincere respect and sympathy.

And I say all of this in a not at all whining voice.