Readers React: Talking about racism can be horribly uncomfortable — but it’s still worth talking about

To the editor: I think that it is absurd for Nadra Widatalla to conclude that “dialogue can’t cure racism” on the basis of one badly moderated dinner between strangers.

While I have not personally experienced racism because I’m white and I have privilege, I have learned about racism by listening to others share their daily experiences. In general, I believe that dialogue increases awareness and that awareness can translate into action.

However, one dinner is not going to magically change anything. We have to start somewhere. Talking and more importantly listening are steps in the right direction.

Carl Pfirman, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I read Widatalla’s op-ed article about her dinner experience with fascination. What got my attention was her assertion that those people whose lives were obviously privileged never mentioned it.

I’m a white male who came from a community that never would question all the steps one takes in your life like an education, a family and a career, which all happened to me without ever having to think about it. I’m retired, well off and relatively happy. It never occurred to me that I was privileged because I was in the bubble of living it.

How does one put one’s self in the other guy’s shoes? I don’t know, but it’s worth thinking about.

Ron Garber, Duarte

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To the editor: I am a white male, so I can only express an opinion from that perspective. But I would offer a contrasting takeaway than the annoyance Widatalla felt at the black woman who said she has never felt the sting of racism.

Perhaps Widatalla’s annoyance could be replaced by optimism and hope that such an experience actually exists today. Not everyone sees the world through the lens of race, and as frustrating and awful a plight Widatalla may have had, maybe not all people of color have been similarly burdened.

Maybe there is light. Maybe the plight of black people and the privilege of white people is a reality that is ever so slowly fading into history.

Geoffrey Leigh Tozer, Studio City

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