I showed a friend the part of my memoir about race 
and she said, “A white woman has seen some racist shit. So what?” First I deleted it. Then I began to wonder why I’m saying anything at all. I called my friend Sue Hyde. I said, “Maybe I don’t have anything that needs to be said. Maybe it’s time for us white people to shut the fuck up.” One thing is this: when I look at the picture of the white cop murdering George Floyd, kneeling on his neck, casually like it’s nothing, of course the compassion is all with Floyd. But if I had to choose which of those men to be, which life to inhabit, it would have to be George Floyd. Who would choose to be a person like that cop, a dead soul, who would choose that? Racism destroys us all. And we all need to talk about it, even if we say the wrong thing sometimes.
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Categories: memoir, racism, writing
Tags: racism, white people
