Protester in Los Angeles

My dad was extremely racist when I was younger. He grew up in rural Virginia in the 50s. The man who ran their local KKK chapter (and was also a local sheriff...) lived across the street from him when he was a small kid; his dad (my grandfather) was also friends with this man. My dad used to tell me how they’d do marches down his road at night with burning crosses and chanting and how it absolutely terrified him as as a small child.

I started to learn the older i got a lot of his “racism” was just fear that was instilled at a young age; more cultural xenophobia if anything. It’s actually been really cool to watch him change over the last two decades from a man who would say “I’m not racist but...” to just two weeks ago he was telling me how he supported the BLM movement and how he was working to understand a lot of the issues, but also how he doesn’t question the legitimacy of the movement because of the racism and privilege he witnessed all through his life (the man is older than Ruby Bridges).

Most people don’t experience those sorts of drastic personality shifts; I’m really happy he did because he’s (obviously) a much better person for it.

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