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So, You Married a Racist
You may not have to stay miserably together or divorce
There’s been an outpouring of grief and anger on the streets across the country and the globe in the aftermath of George Floyd’s horrific murder in the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, and the administration’s dangerously inept response to it that even prompted a scathing rebuke from his former secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis.
Floyd’s death is forcing many white people— perhaps for the first time — to acknowledge the systemic racism black people have had to deal with in America. This is a moment of reckoning and self-reflection.
In a recent episode of NPR’s The Takeaway, hosted by Tanzina Vega — a show that elevates the voices of people of color, women of color and all women — a listener from North Carolina recorded a response to a call out on what people are angry about now with a startling and clearly anguished confession: she has just come to realize how racist her husband is:
“This is a turning point. Even in my own marriage I am seeing racism that I don’t even think I knew existed to the degree that it is there. I think it is opening a lot of people’s eyes to the people around…