F*ck your intentions and just listen.

This piece by Ijeoma Oluo is truth, and needs to be said again and again. It doesn’t matter if you meant to be/to support/to endorse racism, it matters what you’re going to do about it.

I want people, regardless of intent, to know that when they cross the street when they see a black man on the sidewalk, they are more responsible for police brutality than the cops are. I want people to know, that regardless of intent, when people joke about “lazy Mexicans” or “illegals” they are more responsible the racist rhetoric of politicians than the politicians are. I want people to know that, regardless of intent, when they talk about “ghettos” or “good/bad neighborhoods” they are more responsible for the food deserts, the lack of jobs, and lack of quality teachers in predominantly brown neighborhoods than the businesses that decide to leave and the teachers that decide to work in another district.

I don’t want people to have to challenge their entire self-identity as “non-racists” before they are able to accept that their actions are hurting people.