Fleet, I just finished reading Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility. Have you read it? It was eye-opening and clarifying. Basically, we white people are conditioned to think that “being a racist” is equivalent to being a bad person. In fact, DiAngelo argues, racism is a destructive SYSTEM that affects all of us. We can’t help it. It isn’t personal. I actively work on coming to grips with the racism that was embedded in me growing up in a white liberal community.. So yes, I am a white racist. Accepting that feels freeing rather than shaming, because it’s not something I chose. As white woman who’s been doing antiracism work for decades, DiAngelo also, winsomely, calls out her own white racism. She’s not shaming anybody. She inspires me to allow myself to be uncomfortable so I can learn and grow.

Obviously it’s better to be a Tom Brokaw than a Steve King. It’s better not to lynch people or actively work toward discriminatory laws. You’re right, there are degrees of racism. But until white liberals — or white anyones — are willing to interrogate their own racism and allow themselves to be in the wrong in a whole-hearted way, rather than in an I’m-sorry-if-you-were-offended way, things will continue to reinvent themselves around racism rather than fundamentally changing.

Thanks for your comments!