"In general, I think we need to move away from the premise that being a good person is a fixed..."

“In general, I think we need to move away from the premise that being a good person is a fixed immutable characteristic and shift towards seeing being good as a practice. And it is a practice that we carry out by engaging with our imperfections. We need to shift towards thinking that being a good person is like being a clean person. Being a clean person is something you maintain and work on every day.We don’t assume ‘I am a clean person therefore I don’t need to brush my teeth.’ When someone suggests to us that we have something stuck in our teeth we don’t say to them ‘What do you mean I have something stuck in my teeth–but I’m a clean person?!’”

- Jay Smooth in his TED speech “how I learned to stop worrying and love discussing race” (via tropicanastasia)