32 Things I Know for Sure: The Lessons 32 Years of Life Have Taught Me

Two years ago, in  honor of my 30th birthday, I wrote 30 Mostly Useless Things I've Learned in 30 Years. It seems that one of the things I did not manage to learn in 30 years on this planet was math, because there were only 29 items on the list. I've learned a lot over these last two years, which have been some of the hardest and best of my life. So I decided to try to offer some substantive wisdom rather than a tongue-in-cheek roundup of the bizarre lessons life has taught me.

My husband and I often joke that we need to create a book entitled Things We Know for Sure. If we were more organized, we could fill such a book with the dozens of lessons life teaches us every week. Sadly, learning lots of lessons also means being incredibly busy, so I've had to distill the stuff I know for sure down to this list.

9 Questions I Want to Ask Whites Who Don't Believe in Institutional Racism

Today I got into a discussion about racism with a white woman on Facebook. She followed the predictable script: She asserted that Dr. King would abhor protests (she called them riots) against police brutality, and when I pointed her to literature indicating otherwise, she became incensed, insisted she was being bullied, and refused to engage any further. White skin sure can be thin skin.