What to Say on International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

A Helpful Guide for the Chronically Well-Meaning

Today is March 21 — which means you have approximately the next few hours to say exactly the right thing before the window closes and you have to wait another year to care about this publicly.

No pressure. NOT!

Here's my suggestion. Nothing fancy. Nothing that requires a committee or a hashtag or a black square. Here’s a radical suggestion: skip the perfect statement.

Be open. Be considerate. Be thoughtful. Be curious. Be understanding. Be welcoming.

Be kind.

You know — the Golden Rule. That ancient, radical, apparently still-controversial idea that you might treat another person the way you'd like to be treated. Revolutionary stuff. It’s been around for a while. Still workshopping the implementation.

But if you want to go further — and you should — say something specific.

Name a policy that needs changing. Name a person doing the work. Name a moment when you stayed quiet and wish you hadn't.

Specificity is the enemy of performance. And performance is the enemy of change.

You could say: "Discrimination isn't just burning crosses and slurs. It's the resume that didn't get a callback. It's the loan that didn't get approved. It's the meeting where someone talked over the only brown person in the room — and nobody noticed."

You could say: "I'm going to do one uncomfortable thing this year."

You could say nothing publicly and do something privately — which, radical thought, also counts.

Honestly? The truly correct thing to say on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is something that makes next year's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination feel slightly less necessary.

That's the whole assignment.

It always was.

So go ahead — say something true.

And then, more importantly, do something about it.

You’ve got until midnight. And then, conveniently, the rest of the year.