I need them to fight anti-blackness.

By Chad Sanders

My book is coming out in a few months, and I don’t know if I’m going to be alive to see it, because I’m a black man. On Monday evening my agent, a liberal white woman in her 30s, sent an email informing me that she was postponing our important meeting with my editor the next day to pay respects to black men and women who have been unjustifiably brutalized and killed.”

This agency’s behavior is common right now. White people are pushing me and others like me aside to alleviate their own guilt and prove that they are different from Derek Chauvin, the fired police officer charged with murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Amy Cooper, who tried to weaponize her whiteness by calling the police on Christian Cooper.

Black people are being trampled in the process. Many white people I know are spilling over with guilt to offer sympathy. I have been avoiding them as best I can, trying to live, support my black family and friends.

white people who have my phone number are finding a way to drain my time and energy. Some are friends, others old co-workers and acquaintances I’ve intentionally released from my life for the sake of my peace of mind. Every few days I receive a bunch of texts like this one, from last week:

“Hi friend. I just wanted to let you know I love you and so deeply appreciate you in my life and your stories in the world. And I’m so sorry. This country is deeply broken and sick and racist. I’m sorry.

the texter is informing me I don’t have to respond. (Gee, thanks.) This implies that whether or not I do respond — and I usually don’t — the transaction is complete because the message has been conveyed. The texter can sleep at ease.

Many of my black friends have told me that they, too, are drowning in these one-way messages.