Today, a Washington, DC resident writes into The Root's "Race Manners" advice column with an important sartorial question. So important that—for the benefit of our vast white readership—we will also attempt to answer it here.
The question-asker, a self-described "white female cyclist in Washington D.C.," writes:
Recently I was given a ["Chocolate City Cycling"] T-shirt, but I feel weird about wearing it in public, especially outside the context of group cycling. I like the shirt and the people it represents (and I doubt they'd have much of a problem with me wearing it on a ride), but it still feels odd and somehow wrong to wear a shirt that asserts something about a racial identity other than my own. What advice would you have on the matter?
HERE IS THE ANSWER, WHITES:
If you have to ask, do not wear it.
(If you don't feel the need to ask, you are either very cool or very stupid.)