Years ago my flight instructor said, to no one in particular (although there were only two of us in the cockpit) “I want to meet the guy (it’s always the guy) who climbed Everest and never told anybody.”

I get the sentiment. The sucking need to be widely acknowledged for being woke doesn’t replace the fundamentals. I’m going to finish this later, Holiday, and link to it, for you underscore some of the critical points I mean to make in another article. I’ve never been out of the conversation- I grew up IN the conversation, with Black kids in all directions, Black folks as part of my everyday life, as friends and playmates and work fellows, and the work of my entire career has ever been in some way diversity-focused. There’s never been a time I haven’t. Nobody needs to put me on a pedestal for stuff I showed up for simply because it was not only right but it was part of my DNA. There’s no earned righteousness in that, and I don’t goddamned well need a Nobel Prize. You just do the work without that awful need to be noticed for it.

Great article, I am on my way to the gym, will finish this later. Thanks.