Something I am just starting to learn is that, because I'm white, I have the option of deciding that conversations about race (or gender, or sexual orientation) would be better if they happened somewhere else.
For everybody else, those conversations are happening all the time, because they can't decide to ignore that one comment they host made, or the fact that nobody who looks like them is a guest on a show they like, because it isn't an abstract discussion--it's personal.
I can say--"I don't feel like thinking about this right now." The rest of the world isn't given that choice.