So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

the racial confrontation formula: a white person does something racially insensitive and harmful, it is pointed out to them, and they go nuclear.

If you are white, and you are reading this and wondering why we bother if these conversations are as bad as I say, think of how bad the alternative—continued, unchecked racism—would have to be in order to get you to risk that much, and you’ll know a little more about the reality of life for people of color.

You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself. You should instead fear unexamined racism. Fear the thought that right now, you could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don’t know it. But do not fear those who bring that oppression to light. Do not fear the opportunity to do better.

Until we have dismantled the system of White Supremacy and racial oppression, we will always need to talk about it.

Talk. Please talk and talk and talk some more. But also act. Act now, because people are dying now in this unjust system. How many lives have been ground up by racial prejudice and hate? How many opportunities have we already lost? Act and talk and learn and fuck up and learn some more and act again and do better. We have to do this all at once. We have to learn and fight at the same time. Because people have been waiting far too long for their chance to live as equals in this society.

When we look at it in its entirety, it seems like too much, but understand that the system is invested in you seeing it that way.

You don’t always win the fight at first, but small actions add up, especially when you don’t give up.