While it may be tempting to shift the focus away from race in an effort to boost unity at a moment like this, Raël Nelson James cautioned against doing so. “Color blindness fundamentally misses the mark by erasing something that’s fundamental to people’s identity and people’s self-love,” she said. Instead of pushing the issue away, James recommended that workplace employees “lean into the kind of discomfort it might take to become an ally” to black and brown communities and devote themselves to pursuing that path. Raël Nelson James, the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at The Bridgespan Group and PBS NewsHour’s Stephanie Sy took viewer questions on navigating discussions of race at work on June 5.

Dr. Kendi says, “When someone supports policies that create and reproduce racial inequity, that's being racist. When someone supports policies that yield and create racial equity, that's being an anti-racist.” He goes on to say that being racist and antiracist are not “...fixed categories or tattoos. Literally what we're doing in each moment determines who and what we are in each moment.”