I Am an Angry White Man With a Bad Case of Unconscious Racial Bias

I’m learning to be part of the solution

Photo by munshots on Unsplash

I’m a white man, and I’m angry and disgusted by the continued violence against people of color. I want to be part of the solution, and yet I am painfully aware that I am part of the problem too.

Last fall, when I started reading White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo’s compelling book on the white response to racism, I believed I was anything but a racist. After all, I’m an open-minded, educated, and progressive person, liberal in my views about religion, politics, and life in general. I meditate and believe we are all connected and, regardless of skin color, are entitled to be treated fairly and justly.

Within a few pages, I got the sense I was in for a real slap in the face. Not only did Robin do that, she shook me down, kicked me hard, and held up a giant mirror where I could see the ugly truth: I may not have committed acts of violence or consciously discriminated against anyone of color, but if I grew up in lily-white middle-class America then I most certainly do have unconscious racial bias, and that means I’ve got work to do.

I did grow up in white America- Setauket, Long Island, Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Ridgewood, New Jersey, central command posts for East Coast white privilege. I had…