One might reasonably assume that anyone elected president would be aware of what CBC means in a political context. But, let’s give Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt and say that he did not hear what April Ryan said at his news conference last Thursday. When she spelled out Congressional Black Caucus, he immediately went on the attack. First, he spoke to her rudely; then he assumed that she was talking about friends or that being black, she would automatically know them since they are black.  That she, a veteran reporter of 20 years covering the White House , would become his scheduler. “Do you want to set up a meeting?”, he challenged.

How long will professional women be treated like errand persons or assistants? How long will it be assumed by some that one person of color knows every other person of color? Did President Trump lash out at Ms. Ryan because she had uncovered a vulnerability – his not knowing what she was talking about initially? Or did he lash out to show himself the strong man to satisfy his base? Would he have lashed out no matter what question she asked?

All of those things matter. It was gratifying to note that news people picked up on the “black people know all other black people” piece of Trump’s stumble. That is progress because I doubt very much whether that would have been so even ten years ago. There would have been questions about why any of us would take exception to his remark. News people also wanted Ms. Ryan to be upset about it, but she refused to do so. She did not talk about race; instead, she said she is a seasoned reporter and was just doing her job. She left it to others to be upset about the racial aspect, and that is just what she should have done in my opinion. It is time for white people to be upset about such things and not to expect us to express their outrage for them. So while we have made some progress, we still have much more to do. Erin Burnett on CNN did everything she could to elicit an angry response from Ms. Ryan, and finally a colleague spoke out saying that Ms. Ryan was being very gracious.

While it is clear that Mr. Trump has much work to do to get up to speed on matters of race, we must not let that obscure the work that the rest of us have to do. It is not enough for black people to be the designated angry person when racial outrages occur. We must all express our anger in constructive ways when it is warranted.

Typing While Black welcomes this contribution from a guest blogger.