Hi again, Claysin. I'm grateful for this conversation. It is enlightening to me, as a White person who believes that all people should be treated equally despite the color of their skin. Did our forefathers and foremothers believe that? In many cases, obviously not--as you mentioned, the slave ships....I cannot fathom that ownership of another person, and treating said person as a lower-class citizen.

You wrote:

Work together... Another interesting thought! Black people have been trying to "work together" with white people to secure the freedom the Constitution promised us since you brought us here on slave ships. How's that working out for us? Oh, we're having this conversation, so, not good. What needs to happen is "ordinary" white folk like yourself need to understand the ongoing nature and ubiquity of bigotry, prejudice and racism. I say ongoing because the 1964 CRA and the election of Obama did not hurdle us into some post-racial time as many of you believe. Once you "get it", get off your collective butts and do something about it. It's great that you read Dr. DiAngelo's book but until you "do something" that is called performance art.

Well, all I can say is that I hear you. But once we "get off our collective butts" (as we did to march for hours in June in the heat, and I'm kinda old, and my sneakers hurt that day, and we all wore masks, and if you were thirsty, stepped off to the side to remove mask and sip your water, and I cried the most when we marched past two little Black kids watching with their family), what do we do next? Truly, what do we do next?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Alice