My 'uncomfortable' feelings and my lack of confidence are the only things holding me back from confronting racism with a conversation. Listening to the previous two videos helped me realize that, how I learn to understand racism and its impact (through stories) is exactly how to engage in conversations. To listen to the individual. Their experience is real and like the one speaker said, they are in the same area but different paths of oppression and hardship. My lack of confidence and uncomfortable feelings stem from knowing I have always had a very privileged life. My parents are still married. My parents have never lost a job to the point of me noticing the impact. We were never homeless. I never felt unloved or unsafe. To this day I have never been homeless, I have always had a job with insurance. I have never lived pay check to pay check. I am very lucky and this makes me 'feel' like I don't know how to relate to be able to be a solid ally. My parents were not so lucky. My dad was one of 15 kids. My mom was homeless. Both from divorced families. I guess I feel fake if I use other's stories and not my own to relate? To be able to listen? But this isn't an excuse to not engage. Continuous learning.
