*Steve Ramey, a 60-year-old white man, had a come to Jesus moment in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, as racial justice protests swept the globe.
“I’m racist. I don’t want to be. I don’t mean to be. I’m not trying to be. It’s just the way I was raised,” he told Seattle’s KING 5.
Ramey said his racism is apparent in the jokes he tells and in stereotypes he associates with people of color. “If I see a group of white kids and a group of Black kids, I’m going to be more on guard with the Black kids,” he said.
Plot Twist: Ramsey’s 19-year-old stepdaughter is biracial. Caitlin Noble’s biological father, who was Black, died years ago, and Ramey has raised Noble with her white mother, Alex, since she was five years old.
“I’m not who I want to be for Caitlin,” Ramey said.
The protests that followed Floyd’s killing drove a wedge between her and her parents and sparked tension when she tried to talk to them about race.
“Honestly, right now, I don’t really feel very connected to [my parents],” she said.
With their relationship at a tipping point, Ramey and Noble invited KING 5 to document a series of raw, emotional counseling sessions with race educator and facilitator Karena Hooks, the founder and CEO of Hooks Global, a Washington-based consulting firm that educates businesses, nonprofits and government agencies on race and equity.
Watch below:
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