Clearing out my bedroom at my Mum& #39;s house, I found my Leavers shirt from secondary school. A boy in my friend group wrote "MY N*****" on the arm.
I& #39;d completely forgotten about it.

I can& #39;t help but think what a significant & awful experience that would have been if I was a WoC.

This also reminded me just how often my friend group, especially the girls, used the n-word casually.

I never said it, but I never called them out on it either. I should have done better. I should have stood up to them.

That event was so easily forgettable bc I& #39;m white, but if I wasn& #39;t - it would probably be burned into my memory.

I thought of racism as an issue that was distant from me. I actively fight it, but none of *my* friends are like that.

But they were, and I excused them.

I am no longer friends with those people (for other reasons), but I should have said something. I should have said something every time they used that word.

I should have made that boy scribble out what he wrote on me in damn pitch-black Sharpie.

"It& #39;s not enough to be non-racist, you need to be anti-racist."

I& #39;m going to live these words.