To my fellow white people:

Lecia’s piece is particularly insightful, since it calls out one of the most common forms of racism — one that happens at “first contact.” Yes, we are racist. We have been raised by a racist society to be racists, and we’re really good at. Our racism is reinforced at so many levels — economic, social, political, cultural — that we don’t even know how racist we are and we need to spend the rest of our racist lives working on our racism.

So the next time you even THINK to yourself that a black person is well-spoken, stop and say “wow, I have to work on my racism.”

The next time you even FEEL surprise that a black person went to a good school (and wonder what their SAT scores really were), stop and say “wow, I have to work on my racism.”

The next time you have to take a couple of extra milliseconds to adjust to the idea that a black person might be managing you at work, stop and say “wow, I have to work on my racism.”

The next time you see a movie with characters who are played by black actors (when those roles would have played by whites in the past) and you experience the slightest twinge of surprise before settling into the plot,stop and say “wow, I have to work on my racism.”

Get to work.