Dear White People, We Are All Racists

Dear White People,

We are all racists. I am a racist. You’re a racist. We’re all racists. I’m here to hand out Racist Badges like Oprah hands out cars.

By this point, I am sure some of you are vehemently shaking your heads and denying my statement, and some of you are probably so offended just by the title that you have bowed out of this blog. You’re thinking. “I’m not a racist. I have a black friend.” “I can’t be racist. I live in a very diverse neighborhood.” “I don’t see color. I treat everyone the same.”

But as a wife and mom to people of color, I am imploring that you keep reading.

The reason why so many of us don’t think we are racist is because we have such a narrow definition of the term “racism” and “racist.” We have skewed it over the years to fit into our lives and alleviate us of any guilt. We, white people, don’t like to feel guilty. Tiki torch toting, Confederate flag-waving, N-word slinging White Supremacists are the racists. Not us. We can be absolved of our racism because people like that exist, and we openly disavow them.

However, racism isn’t a one-stop shop. It’s a continuum, and we are all on the train. Some of us haven’t left the station yet, some of us are leisurely getting off and back on at each stop, and some of us are ready to finally arrive at the…