It’s been a terrible week in our country, and many of us are reeling from the horror and heartbreak of the brutal murders of #GeorgeFloyd and #BreonnaTaylor. I join the demand for the police perpetrators to be brought to justice.

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My thoughts are with George’s and Breonna’s families, their communities, and all those fighting for justice in Minnesota, Kentucky and throughout the country.
And my thoughts are with my Black friends, neighbors, colleagues, all of whom who are some combination of saddened, fearful, enraged or numb.
As a white leader, I’m keenly aware of the essential anti-racist responsibility that I & my white friends & colleagues hold.

That responsibility *doesn’t* include asking Black friends, neighbors or colleagues what to do, a mistake many white people make.
Black people are holding this heartbreak, horror and fear in ways white people can never truly understand. White people should support them, listen to them, lift them up...
...but when it comes to the work of addressing anti-black racism we should, to paraphrase the great Toni Morrison, leave them out of it:
As white people, we must work towards dismantling the culture & power structures that uphold white supremacy & from which we benefit, willingly or not. If we’re not consistently, actively working to undo the structures we’re allowing racist systems to endure.
Our power and privilege as white people insulate us from the terrible impacts. As an example - I am a mother of sons, but I don’t have to live with a constant fear that they or their father may be harassed, hurt or killed by the police.
A freedom from this fear is something that my Black friends, neighbors and colleagues certainly don’t enjoy.

I can’t passively endure such a terrible inequity, one of many, many terrible inequities in our country – I hope you can’t either.
We in the housing field have an essential role to play, given the history of racist hsg policies that directly led to overpoliced Black and brown communities, to housing inequities, to having Black and brown people be disproportionately harmed by COVID-19.
So I’m recommitting to the work of being anti-racist, to working to untangle racist systems, policies and programs and to repairing the harm they’ve done.

I hope you all will join me in the commitment and the work. https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist-1
And I hope other white people will urge all of the white people in your lives to commit to active anti-racism.

It’s enormous, daunting and essential work and, as @DrIbram reminds us, it will benefit us all.
The work will take years, decades, perhaps even centuries – there are no quick fixes.

But we can take a step forward every day.
You can follow @dianeyentel.
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