The rise of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Parler have created new windows to peer at our consternation about race. But even with that relatively new gust of candor, there is still roiling terrain that our computer and phone screens cannot reliably reach. There are still self-imposed filters that often keep people from posting their innermost questions or laments in an open forum for the world to see.

That terrain is difficult to traverse as a stranger, and yet I’ve spent more than 10 years doing just that, thanks to a simple project I started in the attic of my house. I had written a memoir about my family’s complex racial legacy, and I