Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man

by Emmanuel Acho

it’s tough, if not impossible, to hold bigoted thoughts about someone whose humanity you recognize. I’d double down: it would take some next-level self-deluding to discriminate against someone you respect enough to listen to.

Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance.

“You can’t shackle and chain someone for hundreds of years, liberate them to compete freely with the rest and still justly believe that you’ve been fair.”

And white privilege is about the word white, not rich. It’s having advantage built into your life. It’s not saying your life hasn’t been hard; it’s saying your skin color hasn’t contributed to the difficulty in your life.

We want to believe that America is both a democracy and a meritocracy, where all of our lives are the result of our own hard work and ambitions.

focus on what a person of color might be feeling. Learn when is the time to listen intently, when is the time to be a megaphone for the voices of black people, and when is the time to step in and speak up. If white people are the problem, white people must also be part of the solution.

we will never achieve a post-racial America as long as the gears of systemic racism continue to churn.

When people proclaim that black lives matter, it’s not about saying white lives don’t matter. It is a given in this country that they do. What black people are really and truly saying is that black lives matter as well as white lives.