End Racial Distancing It always rubbed me the wrong way how many white folks inquire about why I have Black friends. Or why I surround myself with people who don't look like me. Even in the dating world, so many people gracefully back away when they find out that my social media pictures with Black friends aren't there to make some "I'm not a racist statement" but that I genuinely have numerous Black friends dating back 40 years. This essay explores this awful phenomena and encourages us to do what I call end racial distancing.
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There’s been much talk of white privilege. The phrase tends to send many white folks, who themselves have endured life’s challenges, into a denying tailspin. There obviously are poor whites. Whites who have been incarcerated. Whites who have had rough childhoods. Etc. This essay discusses the importance of the language and methods we use to advance the cause of social justice. To help cure our country’s dark racist past. But Kass also dials down the offense at phrases like white privilege and instead urges people to have empathy for others’ experiences.
The town hall aired on Wednesday, June 3 on 9Listens. You can watch it again on the video player attached to this story.
Author: Allison Sylte
Published: 6:59 PM MDT June 2, 2020 Updated: 8:41 PM MDT June 3, 2020 DENVER — The “9LISTENS: Racism and the Road to Change” town hall brought together multiple different voices who discussed race in Colorado, the death of George Floyd and where we go from here. Those voices ranged from Elisabeth Epps of the Colorado Freedom Fund, who has marched alongside protesters in downtown Denver, to Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen, who heads an institution many demonstrated against and Jeffrey Kass, a thought-Leader On Race, Society, and Culture as well as an Award-Winning Author. |
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