My sister and I have a pact that if whichever one ends up in a hospital unable to take care of herself, the other will do her facial hair removal.

It actually happened - the Waffle House shooter somehow stole a car from a dealership  https://www.thedailybeast.com/video-waffle-house-shooter-escaped-cops-in-stolen-bmw-before-massacre

You’ll get no argument from me on that. One of my high school classmates was killed by cops. He was from a white family that had lived in the area for generations, the cops knew he’d come back from Iraq with PTSD, and they still executed him. And nothing thing happened, there were no departmental reforms, no apology…

I get that you’re trying to convey that you know what it feels like to be seen as an other. But isn’t there a BIG difference between a situation in which someone isn’t taking you seriously, and a situation where someone might call the cops on you? Cops who can kill you with no repercussions?

Yup, very true!

Yup, very true!

Yup, very true!

We attempted to do some implicit bias discussion at my organization when there were about 8 employees, and I was so mad at the way it went down - it was way harder on the one black woman in the room than on anyone else. Most of the men just stayed silent, but she risked challenging the one cranky old white man who…

Oh my, thank you for introducing me to Mr. Sands! I was too young in the 80s to be aware of him, but I am now eager to see Room with a View.

Yes. My organization hires folks coming out of the criminal justice system. We’ve learned over time that the number one predictor of whether they will last more than a month is if they have reliable transportation and how long their commute is. If they live on one of the bus lines that gets them here pretty directly,…

As a big treehugger, I thought that this sounded reasonable when I heard about it a few years ago... but just like reusable bags for the grocery store, I have a hard time remembering to bring them in.

Ah, that’s really interesting, thanks for explaining. Down here it sort of seems like the opposite... when I hear a white person making a big deal about their ethnic makeup, and they’re not a second or third generation immigrant, then I kind of give them the side-eye. I don’t know why but it seems like the white…

Just curious, why does calling yourself white set off red flags for you?

My friend was the token black guy at military contracting company for years, and he still has lots of acquaintances who tag him into conversations about race. He used to try to do his best but it would weigh him down so much (on top of all the crap piled on him at work each day). He found out about White Nonsense…

I started out drinking the sweet stuff but now I always go for the dry stuff. Bartenders can usually advise correctly but most restaurant servers don’t know much unless they’re into cider themselves. Usually, if a place has several ciders, my best bet is to go with the brand I don’t recognize, one that was made…

Yes. My hometown is full of families like Roseanne’s, and many of them do have black grandkids nowadays. And that is exactly what the grandparents say when a neighbor or coworker questions something racist they have said or done. So I can get on board with Michael’s description of this show as a documentary.

I was in elementary and middle school in the 80's. So in my memory, the boy gamers were at our town’s roller rink hogging the arcade machines in the snack bar. During the slow songs the girl nerds would stop skating, wait on the benches, and look hopelessly at the boys while we talked about the books we were currently…

I’m white and grew up in the 80's and 90's in a rural area where we didn’t get cable and most dads would have a heart attack if you had a crush on a black boy. But all of my white friends and I still watched Fat Albert and the Cosby Show, knew every word to Run DMC and MJ songs, slow-skated at the roller rink to…

Did you go there on school field trips as a kid? And what was your favorite part? Did you ever want to work there? Did you make up names for any of the figures?

Yes, and every. single. damn. comedian. that came to campus would make a joke about the town names... and then wonder why no one laughed.