Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man

by Emmanuel Acho

the words we use have power, especially around race.

Poverty, not race, is a more accurate predictor of who commits crimes.

According to the Bureau for Justice Statistics, people living in households with income below the federal poverty line are twice as likely to commit violent crime than high-income households, regardless of race.

It’s easy to say that black people—black men especially—are being over-policed. The above spells it out in hard data. And this isn’t something out of the blue but from the predictable outcomes of years of racist policies.

It actually comes from the Hindi word thuggee, which means “deceiver” or “thief” or “swindler.”

Calling someone a thug is putting them on a continuum that ends with a superpredator.

As the philosopher Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “Change your thoughts and change your world.”

How are you as a white person holding other white people accountable?

The lesson there is that being an ally means showing up.

Also check out Rachel Miller’s Vice article “How to Talk to Relatives Who Care More About Looting Than Black Lives,” and Corinne Shutack’s Medium article “100 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.”

Speaking of stereotypes, we spent some time with the Angry Black Man. If you’re a white woman, please, please don’t be a Karen. Don’t threaten to call the police on a black person for little to no reason. If you’re a white man, don’t literally weaponize your whiteness. And none of y’all better be using the N-word.

Never dominate the discussion, and try not to respond by reframing or reinterpreting what a black person or POC is saying.

Ending racism is not a finish line that we will cross. It’s a road we’ll travel.