“Today, I recognize that statement is one of the many racialized messages I was taught that don’t serve me any longer. It took a while, but every time I met and got to know another person of color, I had more evidence and life experience to refute the racist stereotypes I bought into. And in those times I still fall back into thinking those statements might be true, I remind myself of other examples and memories that contradict these false generalizations in order to interrupt my racist thoughts. I’m usually able to shift my thinking, which is so ingrained from my life history, to focus more
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