Political Correctness, Segregation & Capitalism PART 7 (White Privilege)

White privilege has tangible historical roots that we would do well to recognize and come to terms with, but our whiteness also affords us very practical advantages in our daily lives. These things are difficult to appreciate because they are invisible to us. Not experiencing them ourselves and being separated from people of color who are experiencing them, we don’t even know to appreciate their absence in our lives:
* You’ve never been told by someone that they do not date people of your race * You expect, and mostly receive, fair treatment and even kindness from people * You do not fear death or arrest when you are pulled over even if you are breaking the law * You have never been arrested despite breaking laws: did you drink or smoke underage? Ever tried a drug? Ever driven 40 in a 25? * You have never worried that your children’s race could get them killed * You have never had to explain to your children that their race could get them killed * You have never thought, or been told that, your race makes you ugly * You have never worried that a friend, mentor, co-worker, boss, teacher, classmate or stranger might make a joke, express a stereotype or pass a judgement about your race * If someone were to make a joke or express a stereotype or pass a judgement about your race, it would not carry real emotional weight; it would not hurt * Your culture is so universally accepted as the norm that you may even believe you do not have one *
When confronted with specific examples of white privilege such as these, our automatic reaction is “Yes, but…” “Yes, but I’m a woman. Yes, but I’m gay. Yes, but I’m poor” are some of the things I have said to myself when confronted with white privilege as a way of not having to acknowledge that I actually do have privilege. Part of the work of digging out the white supremacy inherited and internalized in us as white folks is letting go of that urge, is admitting openly and without any reservation that our whiteness affords us immense and measurable privileges PERIOD. Is sitting with that uncomfortability and facing it without flinching. Intersectionality is real and powerful, but we must learn to scrape away the sleep from our eyes and see our white privilege first because that is what the rest of the world sees first and that is the privilege given us first.

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