Jerseygirl, JESUS
1.b …but don’t expect your Black friends to be your educator.
There’s plenty of material on the internet (as evidenced by the links above) that can help you do your own work. Your Black friends are people — and as such they all have their own emotions, opinions, and desire to either talk about this or not. Expecting them to represent their entire race and to personally educate you on the systemic and institutional realities of racism is a cop out on your part. And it’s not their job.
Besides, they’re probably exhausted. Loving them means to give them the space they need to grieve, to be angry, to cry, to feel numb, and to not want to have to explain it all to your ass again.
Now before we all get our panties in a bunch, I’m not saying that we can’t have honest dialogue with our Black friends in order to foster greater understanding and unity. I’m simply asking you to check your expectation at the door when it comes to how much responsibility your Black coworker, BFF or brother-in-law has when it comes to your education.
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