After facilitating a hearty discussion for a newly formed anti-racism group, Jaleesa, the group facilitator, notices an elderly white man hanging back and waiting for her.
When they are face to face, the man tells her that he used to be a racist. He mentions how he made racist jokes and used racial slurs because “that was the time.”
He says he has changed, and he wanted to share, but his guilt was obvious.
Those confessions by white people to Black people are common.
In place of an open confession, white people may try to present their claims of an eye defect known as colorblindness.
Even if they aren’t colorblind, some white people are still eager for nods, smiles, and blessings as they casually or forcefully recite their diligently documented records of social justice work.
This is too much to handle.
Austin Channing Brown, a Christian ministry leader dedicated to social justice, writes in her book “I’m Still Here” about these confessions.
