Hello, my name is Rosemary and I am a racist.

I'm 78 years old, and I joined Racism Anonymous about two years ago.

I'm a social worker in LCSW, and so I served hundreds, maybe thousands of people.

And, you know, I mean, one man was sitting on a bench with me one day.

He was 85, and I was in my 40s or early 50s doing an assessment with him.

He started crying, and he said, you know,

and he worked at a fairly large company here in Palo Alto,

and he said, I made it my duty to never hire a black person, Rosemary.

And look who's sitting here next to me, taking care of me.

Trying to give me resources.

Trying to give me hope.

And he cried. And he just talked about that, about his judgment, about his racism.

To hold that as an honorable thing to do, you have to take care of your racism. I have to take care of your racism.

I have to take care of my participation in racism by speaking up, by gaining the courage to speak my truth, By bearing witness to how deeply devastating racism is.

That's what attending this group has done for me as a black person.

It's not easy to sit in a group with white people and Asians.

And I'm sure for whites, it's probably not easy.

I realized that I had participated in racism.

As much as the person who directed it towards me and my children and my community of black people,

that I participated in it because I didn't speak up.

Hi, I'm Jeff Krasno and welcome to Commune, where every week we explore the ideas, values, and practices that bring us together and help us live healthy and purpose-filled lives.

You're a little bit racist?

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