I Like To Think I'm A Good Ally To Black People. Here's Why I'm Totally Wrong.

by Eve Vawter

Image via Wikipediacommons

Yesterday morning I made a Facebook post after watching the RNC convention. 

I thought it was just an off-hand, flippant remark that I woke up thinking about and decided to post on my FB wall, as so many of us are want to do after watching any television program. The problem with my post is that I had no idea would come off as being hateful, hurtful and downright evil to so many of the black women and women of color friends who I value and admire and love on Facebook. Sure, I may have not intended to cause hurt by posting it, but that really doesn't matter. I still caused hurt.  

I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I failed to recognize me saying that I don't 'hate a person' resulted in basically aligning myself with a platform that has caused huge amounts of harm to people of color. I'm so sorry I didn't stop and listen to WOC when they tried to explain this to me.  

Read more: If You're Not Black, You'll Never Be Woke

I'm so sorry to all of our black readers and writers and contributors.  At the end of the day, all I wanted for this site was for it to be inclusive and welcoming and a diverse place for all middle-aged women to talk about issues big and small, and to hopefully feel like we are all going through this getting older thing a little less alone.

But if I couldn't even recognize how deeply hurtful a Facebook post was, then I am not doing any of the above.

I'll be thinking about this for a long time. I'm going to do better. I'm going to keep reading and learning and above all, listening. And the next time a WOC takes time out of her day (when she totally shouldn't have to) to explain to me why I'm wrong I'm going to listen closely and I'm going to apologize and correct myself.

Thank you to the black women who called me out.

I'm so sorry that you had to.