What are your thoughts about the concept of white culture, identity, and entitlement as they were discussed? What are your thoughts about the concept of white privilege?
The video of Mercedes Peters’ TED talk was pretty incredible and I internalized something significant from it. White privilege is not saying a white person is ‘bad’ individually but their collective silence contributes to the perpetuation of a system of oppression. I am that White person who gets defensive when someone tells me I benefit from White privilege. I see now that not saying something when some tells a racist joke or says a racist comment, my silence allows White individuals to continue to enjoy freedoms that People of Color cannot. My silence allows me and my family to continue to enjoy the advantages and entitlements of my White privilege all while keeping People of Color at a distinct disadvantage so I can continue living my life in my White status quo. I can continue living my life comfortably and without fear, worry or concern. This is powerful for me and I need time to sit with it, continue to internalize it, and then develop a new way that I can help combat that privilege so that People of Color can one day enjoy the same privileges, privileges that all humans should have without question.
For those of us who are only recently aware of our white privilege - and that is pretty much everyone who knows the term, many of us feel defensive. I have lived my life - a good life - for 69 years, and for a good part of those years, I thought we were all the same. Yes, I have known that there is a huge economic difference between my white neighbors and most of my black neighbors - especially that I have few black neighbors, coworkers, friends, church members. I have tried to reach out, mostly unsuccessfully. But I have been naive. I thought that at the end of the day, we all go home to our families. The biggest revelation I have ever experienced was to hear black mothers to call upon white mothers to stand with them when their kid is dying in the street. Just around that same time, I heard about "the talk." To me, giving my child "the talk" meant teaching him about sex. Understanding the fear that every black mother feels when her child walks out the door is unbearable. This was the start of my journey. There are so many issues to address: redlining, voting, schools, prison reform, poverty, reparations. It can be overwhelming, but we each need to start somewhere. Take a step. Do something, even if it's a small step.
In my lived experience, I could easily understand male privilege. I've run into explicit sexism (which I prefer because it's easy to understand and I have solid tactics to get me through that) and implicit sexism which is so much harder. It's harder because like, are you just a jerk, or are you being a jerk because I'm a woman? So when the idea of white privilege was first introduced to me, it was uncomfortable but I could feel that it was true and began to understand that I am where I am in my life, is not necessarily because of my own intelligence, or work ethic, but because my parents could afford to live in areas with good school districts. They made just enough money to help me with supplying food, clothing, and other items when I went away to college and that in college I was deemed "smart" without having to break a stereotype about who I am. No one has ever said that I was articulate, they said I had a big vocabulary. But trying to share this understanding of what white privilege is with my family who I love and respect but who are also "a little bit racist" is hard. They just can't or won't see it because we were also poor when I was a kid. They've had struggles, they've had some really hard struggles in their life and so their impression of white privilege is that if you have privilege you can't have struggles. I keep trying. I keep trying different metaphors or examples but it just never seems to penetrate.
My way in to understanding white privilege was in seeing heterosexual privilege. When I first came out as a lesbian, I saw how our society is set up for heterosexual couples as the default/standard, and the rest of us are not considered, or are on the outside. Thankfully that has changed recently (certainly with the legalization of gay marriage); hopefully we will see changes around racism since we (white people) seem to be waking up to our part, with our privilege.