Unfortunately, bringing up the subject you're trying to avoid to get it out of the way is hard to pull off usefully (that is without causing that which you were trying to avoid). I speak from painful experiences in my youth when I tried to do such. I don't recall nearly as many instances in the last decade, so either I do it less, I got better at wording things to not trigger people's preconceptions, or I've deluded myself somewhat to not see it when I do. Likely, it's some aspect of all three.