“I was walking with an employee when a woman interrupted us mid-conversation. She took her mask off to complain about other customers who didn’t have theirs on. I asked her to keep her mask on as well. Everything escalated so fast. Walking away would have been easy. However, it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. Not in my heart.”
‘I’m going to SPIT and COUGH on you.’ She began proclaiming ‘WHITE POWER’ and snatched my mask off my face.’: Woman stands up to racist lady in Home Depot, ‘Racism is not welcome’
‘Does he smoke or do drugs?’ My 19-year-old son was having heart attacks. He said no, but all she kept asking was, ‘Does he do drugs?’: Mom loses son after hospital malpractice, ‘This is systemic racism’
“‘Can we move forward and find out why his chest hurts?’ I was FURIOUS. When she came back in, the first thing out of her mouth was, ‘Well, your toxicology screens were clear.’ All she saw was a young black man and assumed he was on drugs. No one would help him. One day, while playing basketball with friends, his heart stopped.”
‘I received a rejection letter that read, ‘African American ‘fathers’ is such a tough sell. Your project will not be a good fit.’: Author denied book publishing due to ‘black protagonist’
“Imagine you’re a black author. You’ve written one of your best works about fatherhood. You’re super excited to get it published, only to receive a rejection letter targetting the color of your black protagonist.”
‘I was walking into the grocery store when a kid asked, ‘Are you a looter? Do you like looting?’ Inside, I was boiling.’: Man turns racist incident into teaching moment for local kids
“As I was walking away, I heard one of them say, ‘Man the ice cream melted!’ I could’ve kept walking, but I decided to turn it into a teaching moment.”
‘People patted me on the back. ‘How good of you to befriend this black boy!’ they said, without acknowledging you.’: Man pens letter to childhood friend, ‘I’m speaking up now, I hope you can hear me’
“I was in your presence when the n-word was used, on multiple occasions. I said nothing. You came to my white church. You stayed in my white home, ate at my white table. An occasional visit to your world was all my whiteness could warrant, yet you were expected to live in mine. Us white folks stole your oxygen, long before ‘I can’t breathe.'”
‘I don’t really like black people, but you’re different.’ I shrank inside myself. I couldn’t change my skin, but I could lose every identifiable piece of who I was to blend in.’: Woman recalls experiences with racism, ‘I’m no longer a scared little girl’
“After months of being teased about my accent, my clothes, my hair, my body, I had no wherewithal to speak up when the N-word came out of the mouth of someone I considered a friend. I froze. I spent the rest of the year working hard to drop my accent. I got quiet. I learned not to raise my hand, because the teacher would make it a point to humiliate me anyway.”
‘I am a black man. I am a police officer. But I am not Derek Chauvin. And I am not George Floyd. I am ME.’: Police officer shares powerful perspective, ‘I will always have a big heart’
“I listen to rap music. I wear baggie jeans, backwards hats off duty, and have tattoos all over my body. I’ve stepped in and arrested the man that assaulted your grandmother. I’ve given the socks off my feet to a homeless drunk who had no shoes. I am a black man. I am a police officer.”
‘Oh, that poor baby! Why don’t you do something with her nappy hair?’ The other kids weren’t allowed to play with me, the ‘little mixed girl.’: Mom to bi-racial family details experiences with racism
“My mom always carried a brush and detangler. She still carries them with her everywhere she goes, 26 years later. I remember sitting on the floor in my living room, my mom meticulously brushing for hours, crying because of the comments. I wanted to be like the other kids. ‘This is just the way it is, honey.'”
Reflections from a Token Black Friend
“There is no escape. There is no level of success that will spare you. We are black men, and that is all that matters to some. Many white people do not understand their level of ignorance — especially the good ones.”
‘Sometimes people think I look like a criminal, so I must smile more often.’ That’s what I had to tell my daughter.’: Dad says ‘I must build a better world for our girls, and better girls for our world’
“We had The Race Talk. I explained, ‘I don’t look like a criminal to everybody. Just some people. I wish this was a world where people didn’t judge us by the color of our skin. But right now, it isn’t…'”
