Reader Responses to NOW!

Eldridge Gilbert’s words in “Now!” (September-October) carried a note of desperation: “The work that needs to be done amongst white people in white communities across the United States can’t be done fast enough to eradicate the fear that I have for my Black and brown girls and boys.” To me, political and educational work by all of us seems the more promising hope for his students. That, and learning to speak up, as Akilah A. Jefferson Shah attested three pages later: “In this moment… Even if it’s my boss, silence isn’t going to work anymore.”

I objected to Mara Gottlieb’s assertion: “If racism is going to end, it’s because white people end it.” I believe that we all, continually, contribute to the remaking of society, for good and bad.

Reading the articles out of order, I turned to the feature on Heidi Kim (“Walking the Labyrinth”), who fairly burst with wisdom: “I tell [people], we are not called to fix this conflict. We are called to hold it, in all its complexity.” History does not end just because we are living in the present. Humility is as essential as righteous anger.