I have questions...

When people of colour tell you the world is a certain way...

When we show you the statistics that demonstrate how unequivocally racist the criminal justice system is...

When we hand you the research that shows people with 'ethinc' sounding names are less likely to get shortlisted for job interviews...

When we provide countless examples of being stopped, questioned, handcuffed, dragged out out of cars, tased, or shot dead because our skin colour is inherently suspicious...

When we tell you about the racism we have encountered in the street, at school, at work...

When we point to a history of racism that has left a wound so deep that it affects the way that we walk through the world today...

What do you gain from denying it?

Like for real... what do you actually get out of that?

Maybe this has all been asked and answered before, but bear with me, because I'm really trying to get my head around it.

What do you actually gain from telling us that we're exaggerating or making it up, that it's not as bad as we think, and that we're just playing the race card?

What do you actually gain from leaping to the defence of institutions that continually demonstrate racism (*coughs* the police) every chance you get... which lets face it, is a lot these days?

What do you actually get out of refusing to believe our lived experiences and insisting that "there must be another side to the story" that doesn't involve any hint of racsim?

What do you actually gain from doing any of that stuff? Like, in what way does it benefit you?

How does it make your life better to deny the racsim that people of colour are telling you that they experience?

How does it make anyones life better to do that?

But at the same time... how does it make your life any worse to accept it?

What do you actually lose from saying "oh my god, that experience sounds really shitty, isn't something I have to deal with,and entirely unfair"?

What do you actually lose from saying "yeah those stats seem hella racist actually. Maybe the institutions that are supposed to serve the people shouldn't operate that way"?

What is it that you lose from accepting that racism is alive and well in 2020? How does that make your life worse?

I'd love some answers.

Because if your life is no better for denying the existence of racism, and it's no worse for acknowledging even just the possibility that it does exist... well...