Being Non-Racist Isn't Enough

I believe the world is beginning to change.
At least I hope it is.
 
All of us watched a man named George Floyd die under the knee of a person whose very job it was to protect people … all of the people.
 
Saying it was horrific is an understatement.

But, I think the tragic event woke us all.

 I watched the demonstrations, and the coverage of the looting and destruction.  I listened and I read about the purpose of the organization Black Lives Matter and I came to one main conclusion for myself…
 
Being a good person; being a non-racist isn’t enough.
 
I need to become anti- racist.
 
There are lots of things we can do to help stop racism  (here is a link to a very thorough list).

But, there is something I think we can have in our personal tool kit to combat racism in our day to day  interactions and it's a simple question. When we encounter people who make casual racist or stereotypical comments about black people and/or any marginalized group of people be they  LGBTQ ,Hispanic, Asian or mentally and physically challenged,  we need to simply be willing to be brave and maybe a bit uncomfortable and ask in response...

“What do you mean by that?”

A straightforward question.
Non-judgmental.  
Non-accusatory.
No assumption attached.
 
A question that forces the offender to explain their comment. At the very least they will learn you won’t tolerate someone disrespecting another human being in your presence and in the best case scenario it might teach them something.
 
No one is born racist.  Racism is taught therefore it can be unlearned.
 
The fact that we as a society are still dealing with racial inequality is ridiculous to me.  
 
We have to do better and I know we can.

xoxo