A Response and a Model

"Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man" by Emmanuel Acho
YouTube, June 1, 2020

"Are you afraid of white people?" Chip and Joanna Gaines' young daughter asked Emmanuel Acho. His response, a model for the most pressing conversations with which educators should be engaging during a time of national racial reckoning, advances only one of the many difficult conversations that he has welcomed. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Acho launched his YouTube series, "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man." There are so many questions that we are afraid to ask, have been trained not to ask, or have internalized understandings of that go unexamined. And beyond asking, there is so much we need to slow down and hear on a deep and soul-changing level. Guests of the series have included the Petaluma, CA police department, white parents raising black children, interracial couples, Mathew McConaughey, Chelsea Handler, and NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell. No topic or question is off-limits, and the discussions are honest and intended to recognize, address, and perhaps even begin to mend the racial divide that has long resulted in death, disenfranchisement, and oppression.