OK so I'm a good white person. You've pointed out all the things I should not do, but haven't helped me to understand what I SHOULD do. If I show too much interest in a particular "racial" event, I'm now being told that I'm a bad-good white person. If I don't show interest, then I'm a bad-bad white person.

Your assumption here is a problem. You assume that the commenter is looking for a prize. They aren't. They are saying they don't need to apologize for sympathy and empathy which is offered without reward to all walks of life. That the automatic assumption (on your part, it would seem) that they are saying these…

If you think kindness is the limit of what is needed to stop mass death of Black teenagers, you have some work to do.

Would you have said the same thing to the white Mississippi freedom riders? They were good white people, too, and they paid the ultimate price for their decision to stand up for justice. Or the straight folk who mourned the death of Matthew Shepard? Or the men who fight for equal pay for women? Or the able-bodied…

In life, it's generally a good rule of thumb to remember that it's actually RARELY about you.

Right. I don't want a prize, but also, don't basically tell me to shut up. That doesn't do anyone any good.

I thought it was a wonderful piece, but I sincerely doubt that most good white people—or at least the good white people who run in my circles—believe that they "deserve a fucking prize." I think they're expressing empathy.

"Good white people" demonstrate the qualities that all good people demonstrate: kindness, empathy, compassion, thoughtfulness, unconditional love. These are the values I try to instill in my students; that parents try to instill in their children.

This has given me all the feels. I am struggling not to cut all of the white people out of my life (kind of hard, given I'm married to a white man) and many of those people are "good white people." They are shocked at racism and racist behavior— so much so they I get links to racist posts on websites because they…

Didn't someone once say that he who is wisest is him who admits he knows nothing? I've found, equally paradoxically, that, as a white person, I may contribute less to the system of racism the more I recognize just how racist I truly am.

As a white person, I was wondering why the author didn't answer those questions, but then I realized that it's not their job to tell me how to be a decent human being. After all, it's not "positive behaviors" us good white people want to be congratulated for; we expect to be patted on the back for treating black…

I think we should delete the trolls, and be outraged, but also be quiet about it.

I guess the question is "How can white people be supportive of the issue without seeming to demean or take over the issue? " If white people don't talk talk about what they do in the situation, then the narrative is that white people are ignoring the issue (which so many do). If white people talk about the issue,…

Not talk about it. You can just do the right thing without telling everyone. That's not only for issues of racism, it's also just a general rule. You shouldn't need positive reinforcement for being a decent person. Just be one.

I find most of this essay very powerful. One area I wonder about is where you think good white people feel like they should be rewarded - what should good white people do then? Not delete trolls? Not be outraged? Keep the outrage to themselves? I understand the frustration of people seemingly wanting to be…

Jesus Christ, she was being fucking nice. Her asshole friend assumed they were doing something wrong, when really they were just trying to go do something fun and couldn't afford it. She assumed that there was more to the story than them being "up to no good," went and asked - a novel concept, I know - and was right.…

Today's announcement doesn't just leave me speechless. It truly makes me wonder how any person with dark skin can live in this country and trust that the systems and institutions that make it so great will work for them. Then you sum it up far too pointedly.

Bet that looked AMAZING in first person.

Why are we acting like this is only about her touching her 1 year old sister's vagina when she was 7 and not also about emotionally coercing her sister into sleeping in her bed and then masturbating while she sleeps? And about paying her sister in candy to give her long kisses on the lips? And about paying her sister…

Cue the race-baiting, preemptive attacks on anybody who might critique the article's premise.