I had no idea about systemic racism prior to 2020, and have really tried to dive into learning about how our system is set up to disenfranchise the BIPOC community. I also didn’t realize how the 1994 Crime Bill fed the mass incarceration crisis. What I’ve learned makes me ill.
There’s a lot I didn’t realize — not because I didn’t care, but because in all my whiteness, it didn’t affect me directly, and for that, I am regretful. I’m regretful that my ignorance made me complicit. But I’m trying to do better. SO MUCH BETTER. But in MY trying to do better, my eyes have been opened to OTHER people’s WILLFUL IGNORANCE, and THAT is infuriating.