On Friday night, Rayshard Brooks, a twenty-seven-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed by Atlanta police at a Wendy’s that happens to be about a ten-minute drive from my school.

As an educator and business owner, even if I wanted to look the other way, I couldn’t. Which has always been the daily reality of Black people in America.

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This week, author Emily Giffin (who just happens to have a book coming out) told the AP that her comments last month about Meghan Markle were “mean” and that she “need[s] to be more careful about the impact of [her] words.”

Back in May, Giffin called Markle phony and unmaternal, picking apart (apparently with friends) a short video of Markle and her son reading together. She even criticized the choice to allow the baby to appear on video in a onesie. However, she was quick to assert that her comments weren’t racist.

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The first time I went to Charleston, South Carolina, I was angry.

Despite Charleston’s notorious role as the busiest American port in the slave trade, I saw no evidence of its dark past as I strolled the cobblestone streets.

There’s a building dedicated to the Daughters of the Confederacy. There’s a major street named after John C. Calhoun, who defended slavery to the last and put up roadblocks to any initiatives to curtail it. There’s also a towering statue of him, right downtown.

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It used to be very difficult for me to send out a mass email to my clients. Whether I was sharing information about my policies, giving them details about an event, or offering a new service, I was deeply concerned about what they would think.

Not just they — They.

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I grew up in a beach town in Southern Maine known for its excellent schools. For the most part, my education was pretty good. There were only three AP courses offered at the tiny high school, but the teachers were strong and the curriculum was solid. 

However, there was one gaping hole: world history.

It seemed like every year, we learned about American history beginning with Columbus and petering out around World War I. Usually, there was a field trip to the colonial history museum in the center of town, where we would churn butter and learn about the clothes and customs of the people of European descent who inhabited the village all the way back to 1652.

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