Driving up to the venue, I immediately noticed the line of cars stretching from the entrance of the lecture hall to the back roads of the neighborhoods surrounding it. My initial thoughts were of surprise, then curiosity.

Was this crowd here for the talk on racism?

As I entered the building, I was shocked at the number of people already waiting to hear the lecture. I had wrongly assumed that even though racism existed today, it was not a large enough issue to draw thousands of listeners to a college auditorium on a Wednesday evening.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, discussing the topics covered in his New York Times bestselling book, “How To Be an Antiracist.” I decided to attend this lecture because I know I am undereducated about race.

All of us teens have heard the inspirational stories about Rosa Parks or the Greensboro sit-ins. Sixty years later, the role of race in society continues to play a significant part in our teenage lives, and I want to be more aware of it.

Dr. Kendi opened his talk by proposing that everyone, including himself, can be racist at times. He wished to redefine the entire idea of racism, and instead proposed the concept of “working towards racism” or “working towards antiracism.”

A person striving to be antiracist will admit when they have said something offensive about people of color, whether they intended to or not. A person aiming to be racist will insist that they are blameless in all situations.

I learned that racism goes far beyond insulting one’s skin color. If you are ignoring the issue of racism and not contributing to the solution, you might as well be part of the problem.

I then realized that I, like so many other teens, fail to empathize with and learn about matters that do not affect me personally. I am affected by gender inequality, so naturally I am motivated to change gender inequality. But racism has never impacted me personally, so I have been slow to act out against it.

A few days after the lecture, my school held an assembly to discuss the issues that students of different races at our predominantly white school have dealt with. I heard that students have been mocked for their natural hair or cultural clothing, and even told to “go back to their country.”

We tend to think of racism as a thing of the past, but it remains an issue in the present day. I want to be part of the solution and “work towards antiracism.” How about you?

Maria Proulx of Ledyard is a sophomore at St. Bernard School.