The Risk of Vulnerability
Nervous, uneasy, and insecure, I took a risk. With absolutely no idea how things would turn out, I asked my fellow church member a question I’d hoped would lead to a conversation about race. It was an awkward subject matter given the fact that she was a white woman in her late 20s and I a black woman inching closer to my 40s by the second. But I wanted to know her perspective, and if I’m honest, I wanted to know if it was possible for a black and white woman to have an honest conversation about race.
Without a smooth transition, I blurted out, “Did you hear about the movie Black Panther?”
“No,” she responded.
I knew no was a possibility though I had been anticipating a yes. The movie was the first of its kind with an almost all-black cast, and because representation matters, I, along with many other people of color, had been celebrating the historic movie weeks prior to its release date. I wondered whether this excitement resonated with the white community, specifically those I knew.
I did my best to describe the movie to her, and when we parted ways, I didn’t think about our conversation until a week later when I received an unexpected text message.
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