Early this year, at the Center for Spiritual Living of Greater Cincinnati, a book chosen for study by the minister was “How to Be an Antiracist.”

I was not greatly impressed, because I am not a racist. And black people and brown people are doing fairly well in the U.S., so I thought.

I grew up in a lily-white corner of northwest Chicago. I had no contact with black guys until my miserable attempts to guard a black player on a high school basketball court. (Now that I think about it, I recall that I also had miserable attempts to guard white guys.)

Although there were very few black students at my college, the president of the graduating class was a black man, Al.

So all is well. Right? Wrong.

Now:

• There was a recent column in the Wilmington News Journal about the history of racial prejudice in Wilmington.

• There is news on my iPhone and other news sources about murder and protest.

• Dramatic personal stories were told at the “United for Equality” rally, here.

I can now see the depth of my ignorance and complacency.

I really want to be an antiracist, not just a non-racist.

My new T-shirt says, “Wilmington United for Equality.” I know that genetically all “races” are equal. All people are of equal value in religious and humanistic systems of belief.

As a lifelong Democrat, I believe that the Democratic Party now stands with “Black Lives Matter.” For the good of all, we need to evolve beyond prejudice and inequality.

The participants in the recent rally for equality heard that “We have made the track team, and it is now time to run!”

Amen. Namaste. In Solidarity.

Paul Skogstrom

Clarksville