Read on Twitter
A friend of mine posted this on FB and I thought I would share here as well.
When I was in high school, my friend Melvin told me that he was falsely accused of shoplifting and my response was, "Maybe they were mistaken." This was racism and white deflection.
When my Sunday School teacher Reggie said that police regularly stopped him in front of his house (affluent suburb) demanding ID, I thought, "Maybe they're just making sure the neighborhood is safe." I didn't ask about *his* safety. That was racism and white deflection.
Years later, after hard conversations with friends and colleagues, after seeing heartbreaking videos, after hearing stories from students, I'm constantly having to check the impulse to minimize or deflect.
