Being raised in a predominately white community you are almost made to believe because your family worked hard, that is why you have a nice house, good education, and nice things. This is not to say that my family doesn't or didn't work hard but we also, as white people, had the system and privilege giving us a leg up. I was aware that systemic racism was prevalent today but in all honesty didn't consider how intimately woven into every aspect of life it was, it is. It's sad to think that lots of these things happen less than 100 and sometimes less than 50 years ago.
Your comment makes total sense. Then I feel so angry and discouraged when I think about how childish and defensive White people get when you try to introduce this idea to them. Like you said, white people work hard and we have had personal challenges, certainly; but an entire system wasn’t designed from the ground up to restrict our rights and opportunities under threat of violence. It’s like what Kerry Washington’s character said to Reese Witherspoon‘s character in the show Little Fires Everywhere: “You didn’t make good choices, you HAD good choices.”