More than a week ago, I created another video titled Lunch with Lindsay: Public Acknowledgment of Juneteenth, US History in Schools, and Screening Practices at Bars. I did not post it on this website right away because 1) I was busy with other things, and 2) I needed time to process the conversation.

As you will hear in the video that I posted above, my friends and I were observing many employers and companies acknowledge Juneteenth for the first time. Companies across industries were figuring out how to properly acknowledge and/or celebrate this holiday in a time where they are determining what it means to foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all people, particularly Black people.

Four days after Juneteenth, I got lost in late night scrolling through videos on YouTube when I found this one from Good Morning America titled Young people join the fight against racism.

I was trying to take a break from reading about protests, but the images looked so powerful that I had to click on the video. After watching it, I wrote this on my social media:

When young children—of different races—protest with passion, I applaud them for modeling what it means to be human. They also make me question the value of education. They don’t need to read a million books and news articles on racial justice. They don’t need to analyze national longitudinal data that integrates quantitative and qualitative research about racial discrimination. The White kids don’t need to dissect White fragility for hours with their friends, family, and colleagues at a D&I training. They learned basic facts about racism and concluded that they needed to fight racism. If they can do that, what excuse do the rest of us have?

There is such a contrast between this video of the children protesting and the videos I have been having with my friends lately.

Originally, I created my videos because so many non-Black people in my social circles have not been sure how to best respond or support Black Lives Matter. I wanted to create a space for people to process their thoughts and feelings on that. We keep being told to have difficult conversations. I figured that I should put a sample of those dialogues on video.

Adults in my circles keep needing to read a new book, a new article, new documentary, or at least resources that are new to them before figuring out how to end anti-Blackness. Yes, educating ourselves on an issue is important for making meaningful contributions to it. Why though are the kids in this Good Morning America video protesting and being part of that change so fervently without needing read every antiracist book on bestseller lists?

(If you want to learn more about these antiracist books, check out this Time article Several Antiracist Books Are Selling Out. What Else Black Booksellers and Publishers Say You Should Read.)

This is a question worth considering. I can think of so many answers to it, but for now I will leave you to answer that question for yourself.