African American

It is our history from day one and continues today. We are very good at denial, at painting pretty faces on the darkest periods of our past. What we aren't at is looking inward: facing racism and bigotry honestly means accepting that it exists in all of us white people, and that we have derived vast privilege from it. The discomfort that causes makes us defensive, evasive, and even downright belligerent in our struggle to avoid looking in that mirror. Look at the people demanding that those who spoke out against Maher apologize. That is not having an adult conversation; that is avoiding the very essence of racism and the hurt and discrimination it brings.

If we learned nothing else during 2016, it is that the "isms" are very entrenched in America.