Racial theater substitutes performance for change while habits stay intact

Evidence

Racial theater is somehow the stand-in for actually confronting the problem. It lets us move on feeling like we’ve done something without challenging the order of things. And we tell ourselves after watching the special or listening to the conversation that we are all better people for doing so—that we are, at least, a bit less racist. But our racial habits remain completely intact. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 178