Sorry About Your Thanksgiving

I’m sorry about your Thanksgiving! I’m sorry you’re going to have to have tense conversations about politics and race when you see your family. I’m sorry that you need to make the choice between two paths of mild discomfort: engaging or not. I’m sorry that nobody can stop this, but I’m glad that when you tweet that you are “preparing yourself for battle” with your family, whom you love but apparently do not respect, your sentiments are quickly mirrored, and empathy seems to find you instantly. I’m sorry that your best recourse seems to you to be to ask for public approval for inaction or gratitude for action; to ask, from people who are experiencing something acutely and personally and existentially, for assurances that, despite your ambivalence about conduct and communication and conflict, your self-evident rightness remains self-evident and correct. And I’m sorry that your de facto allyship feels suddenly quite precarious, for some reason. I’m sorry that you will have to “survive” discussions with people to whom you are uniquely influential. I’m sorry about your Thanksgiving!

Photo by Andy Pixel.