Another "S" word
As a White person, my ability to speak about racism and related subjects comes up against some hard limits.* During my elementary school years (in a community that was 99% White, I might add), the Civil Rights movement was at its peak, and fortunately, many teachers and community members cared to be on the right side of history. Still, what it boiled down to was "Racism=bad! Slavery=bad! Now that we all agree on that, we can move on to other subjects." Having read Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility, I've come to understand how pathetically weak so much of that teaching was, however well-intentioned, and how it gave rise to so much ignorance and naive thinking that easily backfired, doing more harm than good. I'm relieved that so many activists have found their voices -- people who understand what racial justice means from the inside, rather than spectators watching from the sidelines, thinking they understand so much more than they actually do. The Washingto