But...Am I Racist? (Part Deux): Let's Talk

Welcome back from Thanksgiving! 

This GIF covers both this post's title and the fact that I overloaded us with Thanksgiving-weekend reading. Plus: timely. Thanks, Dean! Source

It has come to my attention that perhaps it was a tad ambitious to suggest reading three heavy-hitting introduction-to-racism pieces during a weekend when our most reasonable self-expectations were actually 1) keep gravy off your sweater and 2) don't argue with your mouth full. Oops. I JUST GET SO EXCITED, YOU GUYS.

OK, so now we're back, and even though it's officially Crazy Month, and even though the Internet makes it seem like our biggest justice issue is Donald Trump's Tweets, I am committed DANG IT to doing something every day to become a more aware, loving, justice-active person. And because two heads are better AND MORE FUN than one, I'm inviting you to join me. 

So. Today I re-read one of the pieces posted last week, Racism 101 for Clueless White People, Written by a Slightly Less Clueless White Person, and I annotated it using the fun tool Genius, for three reasons:

1. I'm a nerd.
2. Important truths lodge in my brain more when I write about them (even briefly) than when I don't.
3. I'd really love to start a conversation about this article, and this seems like a great way to have that conversation without leaving our pajamas.

Or we could converse old-school, via quill and owl. Source

Our To-Do Item for today, in a handy variety of sizes

• SMALL: Bookmark the article (which I've reformatted for easier reading) and schedule 30 minutes to read it sometime this week. (When you read it, you can do any of the following things too, obviously.)
• MEDIUM: Read the article. You'll notice that I've highlighted some sections; if you click on a highlighted phrase, an annotation sidebar will pop up. If you feel like reading the annotations, great; if not, you'll avoid an unnecessary trip into my brain. Leave a comment or question in the comment section, like a normal non-Hermione person.
• LARGE (ie, EXTRA CREDIT): Create a free account with Genius, so you too can annotate the article, and we can have CONVERSATIONS IN THE MARGINS, which is a nerd's dream. Here's how. (It's far simpler than this list makes it look.)

1. Make an account at genius.com/signup 
2. If you use Chrome, install the Genius extension, which allows you to annotate this site (and any site that welcomes Genius annotations). If you don't use Chrome, install the Genius bookmarklet.
3. Go to the article, make sure your extension or bookmarklet is active/turned on, and highlight something. You should see a little "Annotate" bubble pop up. Click it, and you're off to the races. Alternatively, you can click on an already-highlighted area reply to anyone else's annotation. SO FUN.

• EXTRA LARGE: Share this post and invite your friends to join the conversation. Reading + thinking + discussing = LEARNING, BIG LEAGUE. (Sorry. I love you.)