I guess I should have said my past “ignorance” instead of my past “views”, because it’s really just assumptions I made based on stereotypes and because I was indeed ignorant. I can remember being in high school (a VERY white high school, we legit had no POCs at all) in my teens and one of my classmates went on vacation to China, and when she got back I asked her didn’t everyone there look the same?? Because all Asians look alike, right?? (please note my sarcasm there)

I remember when I first joined the Army, meeting a black girl my age who loved Metallica and this blew my mind because I’d never known any black people who liked any sort of rock, because they only like rap, right?? (/s). Or when I assumed that trying to manage my own very curly hair was somehow relatable to a black person having to manage THEIR curly hair (it isn’t, at all).

It was never anything outwardly damaging, it was just little ignorant thoughts like that, where I was able to look back on them and be like whoa, I was really wrong/ignorant/racist to assume that. But I also think that that’s part of growing up in America, unfortunately, you don’t realize what’s behind thoughts like that, and yes, I think EVERYONE has those moments of ignorance and covert racism. The trick is to recognize them, learn from them, move on, and not make them again.