I think your stance is very reasonable and I’m sure many ordinary people would agree.

I’m an international student too, which makes this whole episode all the more absurd. I just spent all fall afraid of basically everyone who wasn’t white, feeling like I needed to apologize for existing, going, ‘why have I been reduced to this?’. These are the people I’ve been working with for years now, how did it come to this? I haven’t had too many classes where I worked with other people either, which probably would’ve helped with reconnecting with people.

There is another thing. Are you familiar with the concept of ‘white privilege’? If you’re not, you’ll probably be able to deduct what it means. It essentially refers to how in some countries, white people could be perceived as having an advantage over others by virtue of being white. It is most commonly used in the context of black-white relations in the US. Whites aren’t the only ones – Asians are usually the second in line. I don’t think there are too many people who would outright claim that there is no condition in the US where a white person might be advantaged over a black person, but this is a whole another can of worms that is quite honestly out of my comfort zone. The term is most commonly employed by left-wing/progressive people engaged in identity politics – I don’t think you’re very likely to find a Republican talking about it. Regardless, with my first post, I outright denied having any such privilege, and still do – anyone looking to extend it to applying it to Finns would have to display such grave lack of historical knowledge it is not even funny. When some whites were practicing slavery, we were poor peasants under Swedish or Russian rule. Many ethnic groups in Europe could be described as having been under similar conditions, but that doesn’t stop some people from trying to extend the concept of white privilege to apply to all white people everywhere, and sure enough, that communist fellow did insist it applies to me as well. He was particularly rude and condescending about it, too. Why this matters is that I still find myself obsessing over it after all this time, his insults etched into my brain. It did not bother me too greatly immediately after, but that second post caused it to eventually pop right into my consciousness, mocking me for days on end. I can only wonder what part of the brain caused that to happen, but I do not like it one bit. I have done my best to forgive him, but all of this is still a very sore spot.