Dear White Law Students

I am . . .

Racist

Sexist

Misogynistic

Ableist

Homophobic

Transphobic

Jingoist

Xenophobic

Anti-Semitic

Privileged

I am much, much more.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. In fact, beyond these discriminatory and oppressive features I am many more things: many more bad, but still some good. In a conversation with Abraham Lincoln, a man opined at Lincoln’s refusal of a cigar: “It’s my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues.”1 I’ve got vices in spades.

But this enumerated list isn’t a symbolic exercise for catharsis. It is indeed who I am. I cannot escape that these things are naturally embedded in myself within the contextual setting of my environment. It’s a veridical expression of the mythical Christian doctrine of original sin. These things that I am are not intents, but, rather, a factual state of affairs.

There is no cure for these things that I am. Perhaps, a vaccine, so to speak, exists. Analogously to vaccines, not everyone will be capable (or willing) to intimately receive its benefits; yet, the honest acknowledgement and diligent recognition of its presence can act as a herd immunity mitigating the socially unjust repercussions of its persistent presence.

I cannot apologize these features away. There is no penance that frees me from that which I am. I will carry these burdens with me indefinitely. I’m inspired that in posterity these systemic and oppressive structures may become less burdensome. However, this is only as believable as the efforts I extend today and each successive day thereafter.

This is not a guilt trip. This is not reverse racism. . . that’s not a thing. This is not a moment for me with willful ignorance to deny that this is who I am. It’s not a moment to gaslight the descriptive historicity as opaque. It’s not a moment to perpetuate false narratives of post-racial colorblindness. It’s not a moment to hide racism as definitively a matter of individual intent. It’s not a moment to manifest white privilege as white persecution. I’m not being asked to shut-up, deny and be ashamed of my whiteness, or take a secondary status. Quite the opposite: I’m imploring your help.

Furthermore, this is not a charitable exercise—this is a duty. Your duty here is self-reflective, self-actualizing, and self-accountable. You must embrace the epistemic limitations and systemically harmful progeny of our whiteness. In the end, no one can do this for you just as no one could do it for me. Audre Lorde powerfully wrote: “Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbian and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.2”

Dear white law students, I’m asking for your help. Without it, well, I think the status quo is quite clear.

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Note: The author would like to thank Dr. George Yancy for his approval of this article. For a more thorough reading, please read Professor Yancy’s “Dear White America” Op-Ed on the New York Times website.