Monday's Opening Thought: January 25, 2021

This week’s opening thought: Education does not make you “less racist,” white people. You can read books, watch documentaries, and attend seminars and trainings around anti-racism and white supremacy, and still think that Black and Brown folx are “taking your jobs” and decreasing your neighborhood’s property value. You’ll still clutch your purse or your kid’s hands when I walk by.

You see, education only goes so far. You have to actually believe what you’re reading, watching, and attending. You have to believe it without trepidation, without caveats, without “Yeah, but...” popping into your brain and tumbling out of your mouth.

You cannot intellectualize hate. This is and will always be a dangerous practice. Intellectualizing how you grapple with hate and your connection to and perpetuation of white supremacy does nothing but reinforce hate and white supremacy. At some point you have to get beyond clinging to numbers and data and taking in information in a surface way and actually feel what you’re seeing and hearing. Until then, you will basically be just another white person who knows a whole lot of things about stuff but actually knows nothing that pushes you to actively help your neighborhoods, workplaces, family, and society be better.