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Sadly today, it became painfully obvious that some people in my circle, even some
people of color, do not believe what is happening really involves them or that the
protests are even a legitimate cause. They, therefore, deliberately choose “not to
get caught up in the craziness.”

Sure, as all of our panelists (including myself) have emphasized, we ALL need to

take breaks and practice self-care for our own mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being. Then,
however, we have little choice but to get back to the hard work of fighting for social justice and change
(however we are able, or however our lives call us to do so in this moment)

The aforementioned comment about not getting ”caught up” in the ”craziness” intentionally obfuscates the
fact that this so-called ”craziness” is actually a legitimate fight for justice. It is literally a matter of life and
death for certain groups. The tone-deaf comment highlights two important issues:

FIRST: It takes a certain level of denial and privilege to be able to choose not to get “caught up” or to believe
that these issues aren’t important enough to even pay attention to or to take seriously. They've decided to
believe their racist tv personalities and politicians that structural racism isn't real rather than the countless

stats, studies, and the experiences of millions of people of color proving over and over that it is.

To act as if the worldwide, passionate protests are simply people ‘acting out’ for no legitimate reason is: will-
fully ignorant and inhumane at best and downright cruel at worst (not to mention a brutal slap in the face to
those of us who are dedicated to the work of sustained structural racial justice or those who came before us
and literally sacrificed their lives so we could some day have better ones)

SECOND: It takes a certain level of rationalization, and in some cases, colozination of the mind to be so apa-
thetic. It demonstrates both Internalized Racial Inferiority for POCs and Internalized Racial Superiority for
whites to believe these issues should not be challenged and do not impact our entire nation and democracy.

Or even that they don’t, or won’t, impact our children. We all enjoy some type of privilege in some type of
way and it's cowardly not to face and recognize our area(s) of unearned privilege and how we have bene-
fitted from it (and continue to benefit). Choosing to deny that fact is itself a privilege (and a rather disturbing
one at that).