The Awakening by Katrina Croswell

Question: How do we, as African Americans (Black people), reconcile with a society founded on our oppression? Even when we think we know what we should do or say when confronted by racism, we often find ourselves unable to act in the moment.

I had been at my job in the office of Student Services at a “progressive” Theological School for several months when a potential student—an African American man—walked into my office needing to ask me some questions about the school, specifically around the “temperature” as it related to students of color.

Just when our conversation was heading into a deeper level towards that subject, an older (maybe mid-60s) European American (white) woman came into my office, completely disregarding not only the fact that I was in conversation with the brother, but also disregarding his very existence; she commenced in asking me questions about registration procedures. I remember being so taken aback by her audaciousness, privilege and entitlement. I could not/did not speak up fast enough to inform her of her lack of respect and what was clearly a boundary issue. Nor did I react with my urgent need to reclaim my brother’s presence in the room. The energy that was exchanged in that same instant between the brother and myself was at once silent and knowing; his eyes locked onto my own and I was devastated, recognizing that he knew that, had it not been for the fact that I had the answers to some of the questions that the white woman plunged into, I, too, like him would likely have been discounted—made “invisible.”