...
I grew up in a post-civil rights movement America where egalitarian ideals were heavily promoted and a notion of "color blindness" was promoted. In reality what happened was, despite trying hard to meet those ideals, I was given no vocabulary and freedom to talk about the obvious colored-white dynamics or conflicts within myself with safety. And so I did what most people in my position do. Signal and advocate for equality yet live my life in relative isolation. I'm glad my career has taken me to places to challenge myself. I probably wouldn't have done so if not for that.
Do you mind expanding on that? I have tried reading it multiple times but I don't feel confident I have gotten the meaning of it.
I think I get the 2nd part, which is saying that you like equality, yet you stayed in a "place" where people were like you.