Do you challenge others’ beliefs?

Many declarations were made that ya’ll would have the “tough conversations” with your racist families. How have those been going?

I am Black and have a mostly Black family so I don’t feel the need to have deep dives with them about the struggle because honestly, they’ve lived through much worse than I. But there are other issues I make a point to talk about.

Over the years I’ve had to check my parents on sexist comments, discriminatory comments on other ethnicities, and the biggest of all, thoughts on the LGBTQ+ community. Growing up Christian had the double standard of teaching the virtues of love whilst judging all who weren’t in the club as “sinners.” Something in me never truly believed that a Queer person was automatically bad. In high school, I worked part time with a few openly gay adults and they were just as funny and cool as the straight adults. Why was I taught that I should think less of them?

In college I befriended many fellow creatives who just happened to not be straight. I also became close to people who were atheists who actually had more kindness in their hearts than a few of the churches I attended combined. (Just goes to show you really shouldn’t judge someone’s values based on their faith/lack of faith.)

I share this because if I hadn’t interacted with and become friends with people who were different than me, I wouldn’t have gained the empathy for their community and learned how I can use my privilege to speak up for them.

Will you leverage your privilege to stand up for those who are marginalized too?