Wait, So My Friend Juan Is Actually White?
His race isn’t the issue — it’s the fact that he ignores racism
These days, there are plenty of reasons to yell at the TV screen.
Donald Trump got 10.2 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016, all while incubating a baseless conspiracy theory that led people to storm Capitol Hill in the name of patriotism. Meanwhile, Black and Brown people are still dropping like flies from a mishandled pandemic and police brutality.
I’m angry, like many others, but I also never expected that the state of the nation would cause me to raise my voice to a friend — a friend I had always assumed would understand what it felt like to be targeted and marginalized.
“Hey, have you had a chance to join some of the other Black Lives Matter protests?” I asked Juan while finishing a sandwich in Golden Gate Park this summer.
“Protesting is not how I’d like to make a difference,” he responded.
That triggered my spidey sense. I remembered that curiosity is the right approach when sensing conflict, so I prodded more.
“How do you like to make a difference?” I asked.
“By having conversations with my friends,” he said.
