Comic and writer Maeve Higgins spoke with Boston Public Radio on Tuesday about her recent piece in the New York Times, " To the White People Who Want to Be One of the 'Good Ones' ."
"When I moved to New York from Ireland, there was this big realization that I was white, and that means something in America, this country where the idea of race has really taken hold," she said. "I was an immigrant myself, but my path was so much easier because I'm white and because I was European, that I started to realize the advantages it gave me."
Higgins explained the fine line between social media being a platform for shared learning or performative posting.
"I didn't want to complain about people on Instagram suddenly filling their timelines with 'Look what I'm doing,' because that's important too, you want to share your own learning," she said. "But you can say all you want, but what are you doing, what are the actions you're taking, and does learning about racial injustice feel like a chore to you or like an opportunity you've been given?"
Higgins is the author of "Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl From Somewhere Else." She’s also a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.
