Mr. Eagle and others,

I had various responses to the original response, which you can see by clicking on the original article and your response. The nutshell is that you are publicly calling me out as a "nice anti-racist" who makes things worse by only using rhetoric, and I tend to agree with you on most of the points. My purpose here is to learn and grow, and if empty rhetoric is the only outcome, then it is worse than nothing. I think your criticism of me echoes another of my critics who said similar things about Tim Wise.

The point of my original essay was that white people like me need to talk about racism because white people started it and perpetuate it. This is why I wrote the essay.

Two problems (at least). When I talk about race, I make mistakes (many of which you point out here). And two, it can't only be talk - it must go along with collective action (which you also point out). So talking is only step one. I also need to listen to where I make mistakes and commit to action.