Oftentimes the responsibility to extend compassion falls on me. “You really ought to go back to talk to him. Perhaps if you were more patient, you could see his heart.” So I move on. Rather than dwell on individuals, I speak about the system. About white boardrooms and white leadership teams. About white culture and the organization’s habit of hiring people who perpetuate that culture rather than diversify it. But the white consensus doesn’t want me to point out these things. I was only supposed to name the “bad apples,” so now whiteness has a few names for me. Divisive. Negative. Toxic.
