Almost four years ago, my children’s elementary school was tagged with hate graffiti. We chose to send our children to this particular school because it has a newcomer center that supports immigrant and refugee children and their families entering the U.S. This is important to me because nearly six decades ago, my sisters were those newcomer children.

As the daughter and sister of refugees, I am well aware that the privileges I enjoy today are credited to someone in a position of power who said, “Not on my watch.” I’m also aware that I face bias because of my gender, yet I am privileged because I am white.

This privilege, however, does not foster guilt. It fosters responsibility. While I will never experience what it’s like to be a Black woman in America, I have a responsibility to use my privilege and platform as a gender economist and breadwinner mom to take action. It’s in this vein, and in light of current racial-justice events, that I want to shed light on the state of Black breadwinner moms in America. That’s why I’m calling on my fellow white sisters and brothers to summon our collective sense of responsibility to take a stand (and take action) for racial justice.