White people: The uncomfortable feeling you're feeling right now... just wanting the protests to end and to "go back to how things were." That's White fragility. Recognizing for a moment that you are not more important than anyone else because of the color of your skin.

The first time I was confronted with this and felt it was in graduate school at Marquette, when we read "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you to read it now: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

Side note: I read this in my early 20's. I made it 20+ years in a total bubble of White privilege, despite having a childhood best friend who wasn't White and briefly dating a Black man in high school. "Having Black friends" absolutely doesn't exempt you from White privilege.

You'll find many more recommended readings that will take you a while to get through (I still need to read many of them, including White Fragility), but this is just 7 pages. Read it. Within two pages all White people should have the sudden realization that we benefit from racism

Having that pointed out to you every minute of every day is exhausting, right? Imagine if you're on the other end of it; someone being continually oppressed because of the systemic racism in our country. Black people have had enough. The civil rights movement didn't fix it all.

We have to confront this. As White people, we need to be willing to talk about it openly. Admit the role we play in the system. Be actively engaged in reconstructing our society to recognize the humanity of Black people in all walks of life.

Most of all, we need to think critically. Recognize that there are many powerful people and institutions who want desperately to hold onto their privilege and are therefore working overtly and covertly to entice White people to give in to fragility and "get back to normal."

Normal is racist. We need to be anti-racist. "New normal" means more than life after the coronavirus. "New normal" can also mean dismantling the infrastructure of White privilege.

I don't know how to get there. But I know being silent and "waiting for it to pass" won't work.

If you would like to share this on Facebook (many people use that as their only online news source), I've also posted it here as a public status: https://www.facebook.com/lizgross144/posts/10107464432504488?__xts__[0]=68.ARB7YbjGOlI2GMfZqf_JfBztZtU3W_xHNhRXFYX6FpxFs9XTs-sDx8b5hs6UXNFCwMj2Z0vqiemsEdLrNgqtldCYe4r5kyaTlYauNEJqzY-XU55dTo_qTQsw2OGMGKMXiJxalOfqALutAQnmZbLIPewdg53HAocvdsi3N1FPftffYT6SuhyH84FHbrZUPiQcPnbsUwJnkWkSyzsyrw&__tn__=-R

I'm bracing for comments, but a Facebook feed free of attacks on me b/c of my skin color is White privilege.