Racist by Omission?

One day while reading a post on Facebook by Franchesca "Chescaleigh" Ramsey, I had an amazing moment of clarity, during which I realized I was racist merely because of my own lack of initiative towards learning more about social issues from the perspective of other cultures. This is what I posted as a comment to one of her posts addressing "cultural appropriation", a concept I had never even heard of. I am putting it here so I can revisit it. Isn't that the true purpose of all of my blogs?

I have always claimed and thought that I am not racist. Lately, I am learning something about myself that I do not like. I am amazed at how ignorant I am. I feel like I am aware of the issues and causes in our American society, but nearly every day I learn about a whole area I have been blind to such as cultural appropriation. That is something I would never have given any thought to. To me, it is sort of like a sin of omission. I am racist by omission for not taking the time and effort to learn more about other cultures. That is something I will work on. I am grateful for people like Franchesca who take time to enlighten people like me.

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