This is especially true of a certain brand of white people, many of us middle class and hailing from the Midwest. We pat ourselves on the back with pride for being [Your State Here] Nice. Where I grew up, in a state that is about 94% white and filled with Lutheran churches, we liked to say we’re Iowa Nice.
Niceness is about convenience. It’s about our comfort. It’s about control. It can never include disruptions. It is exactly what MLK disparages in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” as a “negative peace”, set up to keep the status quo.