Powerful, and so true. I recently had an argument with a relative who lives in Mississippi. He was dismissive of the idea that institutional or systemic racism exists contending that racism was largely in the past. He went further and said that symbols with a racist history, such as the former Mississippi state flag, or the statues of Confederate generals, had taken on new meanings and now evoked feelings of pride in southern independence and self-reliance, capping off his claim with the statement that most Black southerners agreed with him.

Sadly, this man worked as a journalist. I acknowledged that Black acquaintances of his may have nodded when they heard him pontificating, but asked, “What do you imagine that they are saying when they are home with the family having dinner?”

If the peculiar blend of ignorance and arrogance manifested by my relative is widespread in the south—and yes, far too present elsewhere as well—then the daily micro aggressions are going to continue for years to come. And unfortunately, more generations of elderly Black people are going to look back over a lifetime of such treatment and confess to their grandchildren that they hate white people.