I find it incredible that Jeff Jacoby, as a white man (like me) who benefits from well-documented, unasked-for advantages based on our race, can declare that “racism . . . has ceased to be a significant force in American life generally” (“Strain of racism finally fading in America,” Op-ed, June 27). I continue to learn about ways in which this is not true, despite my wish that it be otherwise.
My hope is that all of us could recognize and celebrate the successes that individual people of color have achieved (often having to work twice as hard to prove themselves, as people like Condoleezza Rice have noted) AND could still recognize the impact of racism and white privilege in the United States. Often the ways in which this is manifested are subtler than the acts of more overt racism. The wearying
micro-aggressions that many people of color endure are ones that I am not subject to.
I did not ask for it to be this way. It is my reality, and it is unjust.