Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read
Sorry for the delayed reply!
- I wrote this in tandem with the “Your Safety Pins are Bullshit” piece, which is why I included “easily.” Most of these options — admittedly not all — require little to no effort on the part of the individual. If you’re driving at a larger point (that meaningful change is not easy) I wholeheartedly agree — but this is not an article about how to achieve meaningful change.
- This specific piece, no. But what you’re reading here is also a condensed list of matters that I’ve spent years learning about (speaking, reading, mostly listening) from POC. I sort of wrote this in an angry fervor, so I didn’t pause to run it by anyone — and as you might see in the comments, I made a few errors for which people called me out. One was around the language I used for disability, and the other was clumsy phrasing of “Go to a black church,” which made it sound like white people should just strut on in and make everything about themselves. Among the criticisms I heard from POC, that was the most frequent.
I feel odd saying this, because it sounds like I’m trying to shield myself from criticism (which I’m not) but since you asked, I have received really positive feedback on this from a lot of people of color, both people I already knew in my day-to-day life, and strangers who introduced themselves in response to this piece. It’s not been universal praise, and I’ve taken the criticisms to heart, but the positive responses by far outnumber the critiques.
I don’t mean that to sound like “I have a black friend!” but you asked about the response I received. ;-)
