10 Reasons White People Don’t Want To Talk About Racism
But you must talk about it if you care about your Black friends
I’ve been publicly writing about racism for over a year. I’ve shared my articles on my social media platforms for all my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to see. What has really shocked me is the total silence of most of my white friends and colleagues when it comes to discussing overall racism and acts of racism that I have experienced.
Of twenty friends, only one has been courageous enough to talk to me about racism and its birth mother, white supremacy. I’ll call her Alexa for the purposes of this article. Alexa and I met through work about ten years ago. Whenever she’s in town we spend a day together. We’re not particularly close but when I met her this summer and she started telling me about the antiracism books she had recently read as well as her realization that she benefitted from white privilege, I really began to appreciate her a lot more.
I must admit that having these conversations with her has made our bond a lot stronger. Apart from my family, she is one of the only white people in the world who knows me fully — racist experiences and all.
I’ve tried to imagine why the others haven’t had the courage to speak with me about the topic. Here are 10…
