Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

If someone says to me anything that essentially means "you are perpetuating the pain that our society causes me" ("this X is troublesome", "this X is racist,", "this X is sexist", "this X is ableist", etc), no matter how the statement is phrased, I need to immediately stop, take a deep breath, and not even begin to attempt to refute this statement, explain why the explainer is wrong, or offer alternate readings of the scenario until I thoroughly understand why that person is saying this. To do otherwise is to leap to the defensive and cause harm to the person doing the pointing out, especially if the person pointing this out is already hurting.

— What I Have Learned Through These Conversations About Race