What If Being Called "Racist" Were the Start of the Conversation?

And not the end of it

Author

Sharon Hurley Hall
August 28, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Hello friends,

There’s a thing that happens in mixed company (that is with Black/Global Majority and white folx share space) whenever someone describes a white person’s behaviour as racist.

Invariably, the person whose behaviour has been described that way shuts down and they stop hearing anything else. Some even behave as if having their behaviour called racist is worse than, you know, actually experiencing racism. (It isn’t; not by a long shot.)

But something that happened last year made me believe there’s hope, and that calling behaviour racist does not have to end a conversation. Indeed, it can be the start of a new avenue of learning for the white person in question.

Some time ago, a Global Majority person posted on LinkedIn about racism and white people, and made a point about the unearned advantages many white-presenting people enjoy, and the system we all are raised in. What happened next was interesting.

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