6 Ways A Black Person Can Tell A White Person Isn’t Racist

It’s not that complicated

Rebecca Stevens A.
ILLUMINATION-Curated
4 min readJan 24, 2022

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Photo by Wadi Lissa on Unsplash

Black people can detect racists from a mile off. It’s the way they look at us — it’s often a look of disgust, deep hatred, or fear, and it shows. The minute we approach you, we can feel it — call it our sixth sense or survival instinct.

Because we can feel that racism, we know we have to keep our guard up lest you try to harm us. There are of course some white people that have perfected the art of hiding their racism: closet racists. Sometimes we don’t spot those soon, but it’s a matter of time — when and not if — they’ll make a crucial mistake that will lay bare their ugly, racist, selves.

I’m no expert in sniffing out racists— I’ll admit it here, I’ve been tricked many a time. But one thing I’ve learned is that they will always, always show their true selves at one point. Sometimes maybe even years after you’ve met them and actually consider them your friends.

This was the case with a white lady I worked with for many years. I was shocked at the derogatory comments she made about an Asian girl that I hired. It blew me away. This white lady went out of her way to spread the crassest rumors about my direct report based on sex-related stereotypes about Asian women. It was appalling.

White people that are not racist have these 6 characteristics:

  1. When they meet a Black person, they don’t start staring or examining you like a specimen under a microscope. They make eye contact and speak to you like they would any other human being. You can feel that they are relaxed and don’t feel intimidated by you. They don’t start fixating your nose or your mouth or your Black skin. So many white people do that. Don’t they realize how awkward and strange it is to stare? White people that aren’t racist don’t say stuff like: “It’s the first time I’ve met a Black person or there are not many Black people here”. They don’t make race the topic of discussion when they don’t even know you, only racists do that because they feel so self-conscious and are worried that their racism is showing.
  2. You immediately feel like the person considers you like their equal. They don’t try to act as though they are superior to you. They are not patronizing or condescending…

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Rebecca Stevens A.
ILLUMINATION-Curated

I write about racism, but there are so many other things I would like to write about instead. Help me dismantle racism so that I can get to that.

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