Thanks for the kind words. I hope so, too, but I’m afraid the tide will most fully turn after many of the people responsible for the systemic abuse die off. I have great hope in younger people (with the obvious exception of the small but sadly growing nazi youth movement, for lack of a better term).

And as far as policing, gosh, we are just going backward on that, it seems, not forward. I don’t see a lot of political leaders with any will whatsoever for wholesale change. I don’t see much interest in it in the general public, either, especially among white folks.

However, as a writer, I’m encouraged by the number of women and growing diversity in publishing. A look at a list of agents on https://querytracker.net/ shows that the majority of literary agents are women. Women not named Marjorie Taylor Greene tend to favor diversity.

This stuff filters up, and impacts the types of books on the market. In addition, publications like The New Yorker, The Conversation, and similar journals relentlessly push diversity. I honestly believe it isn’t all lip service, and that’s largely because of the impact of women in the publishing biz, IMHO.

So, voices are starting to be heard. It’s a painfully slow grind, but I think it’s happening. I hope so, at least. My favorite books are about societies I don’t know or understand, even within my own country. I do have my own prejudices, instilled in me from pretty racist parents, and it can be interesting how they can flare up, in my thoughts at least, even though I resisted my parents’ attitudes even as a middle schooler.

Whites like me who are your allies certainly don’t deserve any applause. It should just be how things are. We shouldn’t have to think about the simple morality of treating everyone like the children of God that they are (or for the non-religious, the children of the universe).

There **are** differences in culture and norms among people — but those are fantastic things to experience. I’ve never been able to understand the resistance to them. Sorry for the long reply, lol!