The room was deathly silent at that point, no one knowing quite what to make of a proclamation such as that. “I mean no disrespect,” I explained. “It’s just that I’m not fighting racism so as to save you from it. That would be paternalistic. It would be like saying that black folks aren’t capable of liberating yourselves from white supremacy. I think you are, though it might be easier with some internal resistance from whites. But regardless, I fight racism because racism is a sickness in my community, and it damages me.”
