Friend,

For generations, white people believed that the quiet of our communities in everyday life meant there was peace. We felt that the love held in our hearts for our neighbors created a safe place for all people to live and succeed as themselves. We saw the successes of a few as victories for many. We were comfortable and content -- but we were wrong.

Since this nation's founding, white people have had the luxury to define normal. In the past, normal was slavery and Jim Crow laws. It was blatant discrimination in the workplace, in housing, and in education. Normal was -- and still is -- regarding those with black and brown skin as "other." Meanwhile, white people were exposed to numerous role models who looked like us. Who talked like us. Who lived like us. We were represented as doctors, firefighters, scholars, and superheroes, leaving no doubt about our capacity to succeed in our world.

We must begin to understand that what's considered normal in America is a result of generations of disenfranchisement, minimization, and silencing of Black people and their experiences. And when we uphold this status quo with our silence, we are rewarded with comfort. This isn't to say that white people haven't fought their own battles -- we have. But the struggles we face daily are rarely related to the color of our skin.

It's time to pull back the curtain of comfort and reveal in plain words what we should all know to be true: Racism is deeply ingrained in our history, in our institutions, and in our everyday lives, and white people have benefited from it. We must continue to push the importance of self-reflection to discover and understand our inherent biases while we challenge our perceptions of normalcy. Racial justice will only be achieved if we forgo the comfort that got us here and do the hard work this moment demands.

I'm committed to doing just that, and I hope you will join me.

-- Dean