Dear White Liberals

I love y'all but please stop using racism as an excuse to exercise your moral superiority in ways that are entirely unhelpful to our cause. I see so many people lashing out at individuals who express their prejudicial thoughts and tendencies by calling them incredibly degrading and insulting names, etc. When you do this, you only push those people farther into their already twisted mindsets because they get to see that we hate too. Don't hate, educate. Rather than throwing out slurs and insults, send them a helpful article or at least speak to them in a respectful and diplomatic way that would encourage them to listen. We aren't going to win anyone over by being mean. If the goal is to change hearts, we have to speak from our own. All we do when we insult and bash is tamper the racism back into its quiet corners, where it has been residing for decades. We've seen that silencing racism doesn't eliminate it. What will help to eliminate it is making friends with those who we would rather reject. I'm not saying to support or patronize those people. What I am saying is that, as difficult and gross as it feels, opening up honest and potentially loving relationships with racists might actually help them to see our humanity. I know, unpopular opinion. An amazing example of what I mean is a man named Daryl Davis who has collected something like 200 robes from former Klan members over the last 30 years. Literally, through the power of friendship.