Celebrate National “Clean Out Your Refrigerator” Day
It’s time to throw away all the spoiled, ingrained racism
We have days for everything now.
National French Fries Day. National Cappuccino Day. Even National Substitute Teachers Day.
November 15 is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day.
Maybe you have that jelly in the back of your fridge from 2023. Or you have cream cheese that’s three months old. Worchester sauce from 2018. Or some cheese that’s turning blue. Or, more likely, some leftovers from three weeks ago.
Like most people, we often go through our refrigerator, clean house, and throw away the spoiled stuff. The items with expiration dates that have long passed. Not just because it’s gross. But also because the last thing we want is for the blue milk to start contaminating everything else.
Maybe it’s time we also clean out our mental refrigerators, especially when it comes to race.
We store up distorted ideas about Black people. Who they are. Their so-called proclivities. Or ideas about their abilities. Decades and decades of thoughts live in our deep unconscious.
Mental food that’s been prepared for us years ago by what we read. Or seen in movies and television. In commercials. On the news. Perpetuated…
