I am a full of thanks on this day, my 38th birthday. Two years ago, I didn’t know whether I’d see another birthday. I was dealing with stage 4 cancer, facing down a daylong cancer surgery with two different surgeons. 1/9

A year ago on my birthday, #HowToBeAnAntiracist dropped. I was excited as I was worried. 2/9

It is not easy to release a book where you are incredibly vulnerable and incredibly ashamed, a book debunking how many people understand racism,

3/9

a book eliminating the safe and easy space of “not-racist” neutrality, a book pointing at power and policy as the problem and not people, a book pointing a way forward down the unlit dirt road of antiracism. 4/9

But I did and many of you have joined me in being vulnerable, have rethought racism, have stopped saying you aren’t racist or can’t be racist, have ended your denial, have committed to being antiracist, have joined the antiracist movement to revolutionize our society. 5/9

Two years ago, and a year ago, I felt I was living on borrowed time. I still feel that way. Then again, I’ve always felt that way on some level. To be Black in America is to live on borrowed time. 6/9

And to live on borrowed time is to find joy and love in the American nightmare. To live on borrowed time is to be thankful for the smallest things each day. To live on borrowed time is to have an orientation and urgency towards the biggest change today. 7/9

To live on borrowed time is to recognize the change you did bring today and fight for the biggest change tomorrow. To live on borrowed time is to be thankful for all the people fighting all forms of injustice today and tomorrow. 8/9

If you are one of these people, I am full of thanks for you. Thank you for these gifts. 9/9