My advice to my conservative friends -- using Chadwick Boseman's death to talk about how you "don't see a person's race" is stupid. We all see race and we all notice differences. That is a good thing. God created us different so that we may come to know & value each other. Stop.

I am a follower of #MalcolmX and believe all human beings should empower themselves and not use their race as a crutch. But to extend that argument to pretend that racism doesn't exist is delusional & frankly sinister. Oppression exists, racism exists. Don't lie to yourself.

When a minority shares their struggles with you, dismissing their experience and acting as if race just exists in one's imagination is deeply insulting and perverse. Human beings will always struggle against bigotry as fear of the "outsider" is part of our ancestral tribal DNA.

No one is required to take the collective burden of their race on themselves, or take on guilt for something they haven't done. That doesn't mean you can pretend that oppression isn't real and empathize with the struggles of your fellow human beings who experience bigotry.

If Chadwick Boseman or any minority shares their struggles with you & how being different from the majority has made their lives difficult, it is not an attack on you. No need to defend yourself or your race in response. Listen and open your heart. That is all that this required.