My privilege wakeup call with the author of “So You Want To Talk About Race”
For many white liberals, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the implicit approval of overtly racist, xenophobic policies like the border wall and the Muslim ban was a traumatic but much-needed wake-up call. The curtains on darkened windows were thrown open, revealing just how pervasive racism remains in a country built on stealing land and stealing people. But even after the curtains are thrown open, some people choose to hide under the blankets and go back to sleep. “You can’t just go around calling anything racist. Save that word for the big stuff. You know, for Nazis and cross burnings and lynchings. You’re just going to turn people off if you use such inflammatory language.” That’s what author Ijeoma Oluo’s white friend told her when she dared to complain about a racist exchange online. “It seemed far more important to him that the white people who were spreading and upholding racism be spared the effects of being called racist, than sparing his black friend the effects of that racism,” Oluo recalls in her new …
