If it were up to me, all conversations about racism would happen only after concrete changes. No more meetings, no more discussions, no more Zooms, no more committees, no more sermons. Change first, then discussion.

The only reason you would have any of those meetings before change would be to come up with a definitive list of concrete changes and deadlines for a specific group, organization or business.

No more backstories, no more personal histories, no more Black pain for white edification. Just goals.

All of the meetings about how you feel or what you’re trying to learn or where you come from would have to wait until some of the changes THAT ARE BEING ASKED FOR are made. Our asks are not new. Black Lives Matter has had a website for six years.

Christopher Columbus statues weren’t even on the list. Aunt Jemima was not on the list. Those are foul shots and we need three-pointers.

Don’t like me saying it? Toni Morrison already told us to stop doing this. I promise you, we’ve already done it the other ways. They don’t work. You don’t need these meetings where you educate people about navigating their feelings; THEY need that.

Companies are not out here making statements on Black lives because they suddenly care. You’re not seeing the changes b/ of a listening session. You’re seeing them b/ of protest, b/ of full streets, b/ of closed or struggling businesses still reeling from a pandemic.

So let’s see fewer meetings and talks and discussions and committees designed to make people feel better about unpacking racism. We’re doing it from the wrong end. We need to be doing this from the legislative end, the legal end, the purse strings end.

And if we still need to have a discussion about how you feel about racism after we’ve dismantled some systemic damage, then we’ll set aside some time for that. But this thing where we educate white people into the right thing is a path of diminishing returns.

It costs us everything and them almost nothing. Black people are out here dying while you process your feelings. If you had made even 10% of the changes we’ve been asking for since Trayvon Martin, George Floyd would be alive right now.

(And don’t worry: There will always be Black people who feel like trying to educate white people first is the way to go. Nothing I say will stop those people, so you’ll always have that back-up. They believe in you. But it's 2020. I’m more pragmatic than that.)