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The year of 2020 was a fool.

We were enveloped in a raging and most confident form of racism that hasn't been displayed so loud and proud without apology since the 1960s. Audacity, white privilege and white supremacy seeped its way into 2021 on what could not have been a larger stage than the riot that was seen at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. The egregious level of misconduct that was simply allowed by officers of the law was in no way shocking to Black people, but was abhorrent nonetheless. Everything that we had ever known to be true of this country's attachment to "white is right" played out before our eyes on live television, and there has been no greater "I told you so" to validate everything we have ever known and been taught our whole lives.

In a country that is surely showing signs of being on the brink of a civil and race war, corporations are scrambling to stand out as the place that loves all people and are definitely "listening and learning" to the voices of Black people. Please be clear that not a Black person alive in America is falling for the guise of it all. But hey, literally nothing was done before. So, as a people, we are rolling with it.

However, do you know how difficult it is for people of color to receive a "diversity training" from a white woman in America? All offense meant, this ain't your lane. White women in this country cannot presume they have any ground left to stand on to present on such a topic with any kind of veracity. Why? It is clear that white women have been complicit in the disparities in this country just as much as white men, and are just discovering they played a part in it at all.

The shock and awe that was displayed behind those black squares in June screamed out what we already knew — entire bodies have been buried in the sand and were coming up for air so as not to appear complicit in it all.

This is the part where I should say "not all white women," but if we are being real, I will just allow the hit dogs to holler at this phrasing. At this point, we are well past walking on eggshells.

Allowing white people to come into your businesses to lead a diversity training is a legitimate slap in the face to people of color and disregards an opportunity to amplify their voices in your space.

It is evident that this country has been putting Band-Aids on the issue of racism and completely tuning out the many avenues that Black people have been shouting the magnitude of its effects for decades now.

The chain of events over the past few months has surely opened the doors to conversations that were never considered in spaces before and were definitely not addressed in workspaces. But the conversations are not enough. These halfway done diversity presentations are not enough.

This is not a facet of this country that will be cured overnight and there is not one simple answer. What is for certain, however, is that the answer does not lie in the voices of more white people.