Can We Educate Ourselves Out Of Racism?

In short? No.

Race is a super complicated topic, and writing about it as a middle-aged white guy is often fraught from the jump, so let me start by directing you to this column from Esau McCaulley in NYT:

Opinion | An American Tragedy at the Dollar General

Here would be, in my opinion, the best paragraph in there:

I do not believe that we can educate ourselves out of racism, and I doubt that the person who attacked the Dollar General could have been diverted by any college course or book. Racism resides in the mind, the heart, twisted imaginations and long-festering resentments that surge in times of perceived loss of power. Racism persists because it is politically, socially and economically useful. It is a way of avoiding looking at one’s own faults and struggles, and instead finding meaning in…