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Difficult



I have an online friend who has been posting a question a day as a way of engaging folks during quarantine. Yesterday’s question:

 Day 87: How do you start a difficult conversation? Or do you avoid them?

 That’s a very good question. 

 Right now there are plenty of difficult conversations to be had and most of them are happening online as we are isolating apart from one another. In the past the general advice has been to avoid tackling difficult topics on social media but right now that’s all we have. The difficult local and national events haven’t stopped happening. In fact they seem to be escalating.

 Where do you go to have those difficult conversations? Or would you rather not have them at all?

 The other day I followed an online discussion about Roger Goodell’s statement acknowledging that the NFL was wrong in its responses to the protests of Black players. One woman said she understood that they had a reason to protest but the way they did it made her uncomfortable. 

 I’ve been thinking a lot about that. Isn’t protest supposed to make us uncomfortable? If we remove the aspects that make us uncomfortable aren’t we essentially robbing it of its power? Isn’t there a touch of hubris in whites wanting to “fix” Black protest?

 We probably all wish that life could be less difficult right now. There’s not a whole lot we can do to change that. But I’m not sure that retreating from difficult and uncomfortable topics and conversations is the answer. 

 Have you had any difficult conversations lately?

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