Call to Conversation

efore real change can happen, it’s important to acknowledge the past. For this reason, I need to say I am sorry. I’m sorry for the times I listened to jokes directed at people of color, specifically black people, and didn’t speak out against them. I’m sorry for the times I said something offensive myself. I’m sorry for the times that I ignored the inappropriate and offensive things my family members said and didn’t speak up. Please, let me be silent no more, by borrowing your glasses in conversations that elevate black voices in the search of perspective that can change the world.

Call to Conversation

Anxiousness over engaging in a conversation is enough to paralyze people from acting. If you’re there – fight it. The positive is the first question to invite someone into conversation is usually the most difficult part. There’s no turning back and unspeaking those words, or unsending that text message – you can’t back out. After that, you must be willing to sit in conversation when it makes you squirm. It might expose some things you believe that you never thought you did. Without conversation, you won’t confront those things on your own.  

It is not the responsibility of someone from the black community to seek a conversation and hope to find an interested ear that would like to listen and learn. The black community has been asking to be heard for multiple generations. If you’re white, this step is on you. It is up to you to initiate conversations around race, to listen and to try to understand.  

Try starting here: “If you’re black, please know that I fully recognize I will never be able to walk in your shoes or experience life as you do, if even for a day. But please, let me borrow your glasses; let me try to see the world the way you do. The only way that I will be able to do this is if I listen with the intent of truly getting to know you and to understand what you experience and how you see things differently than I do.”

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