I'll never forget the time I was in a pretty much all-white space with one other POC & we were upset about racist mistakes that had been made, & one white ally stood with us and just... listened. They didn't make it about them. They didn't try to inject themselves to prove...

...that they were one of the good ones. They didn't zone out or look away uncomfortably. They. Just. Listened. and then they asked if there was anything they could do to make the situation better so that the work and burden wouldn't fall to me and the other POC.

this will always stick with me as one of the very few times I saw a real, true white ally. the feeling of not having to soothe their feelings while struggling with the racism in the room, and knowing that I didn't have to speak up on my own behalf bc a white person...

...was willing to do the work by going to their white peers, was one of the few times I really felt what I hope every community I belong to can one day feel like.

I mean, not to be dramatic, but I'm tearing up just thinking about that moment.