Dear Prudence,
I’m a young, white, nonbinary, queer person. I understand that, as a white person, there is always more that I can do to understand racism and my part in white supremacy. I was at the Pride parade in New York City and was wearing my “Gay slang was invented by black women” T-shirt, and it made some black parade attendees upset. They didn’t approach me, but they were discussing how the shirt was racist. I was going to approach and ask if we could discuss it, but then I didn’t want to make them more uncomfortable, and I felt just bad in general. I ended up taking off the shirt so as not to cause anymore disruption. I’ve done some research on the shirt and have decided not to wear it anymore because it doesn’t acknowledge black femmes. But I’m wondering if there was something else I could have done in the moment besides freeze?
—Racism at Pride