White people have a history of perceiving black men as dangerous, fearful, and menacing. White people have gotten away with killing black boys and men, claiming they were afraid.
As a white woman, I never enter spaces, worried that others will fear me. My husband has learned how important it is to lower white people’s fear of his blackness. He has learned to do this by being overly cheerful and adept at small talk. And he does this by how he wears his hats.
I was born into the Mormon church, baptized at eight. I received a patriarchal blessing and worked hard to be a faithful Latter-Day Saint. I planned to attend Brigham Young University and expected to marry a returned missionary to build a family. I was continuing a faith tradition my family had worshiped in for overContinue reading “Redemption”
“Conversations with Racists Like Me,” is a writing idea I have been actively trying to ignore for nearly four years. The thought creeps into my brain when my guard is down in the wee hours of the night. It whispers when my anxious busyness cannot distract me. Much energy has been spent in avoidance. AtContinue reading “Beginnings”
