“What have you grieved — but also gained — in your journey to be more racially conscious?” Almost a year ago I participated in The Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy (IREL). In the opening podcast, Tricia and Sonja asked participants to consider the following question: What have you grieved — but also gained — in your journey to be more racially conscious? While the point of the conference was to learn about and reflect on racial equity and literacy, the verb grieve and its concept of loss struck me. So did the juxtaposition of gaining something along the way. …