The term does make me uncomfortable. And it very painful to watch the militants with their assault weapons in the state capitol, the angry whites confronting essential health care workers and screaming about their rights and freedoms. It makes me feel uneasy knowing that I would not be followed or questioned in a store. When I was a little kid, my box of crayons had a "flesh" crayon and yes it was white-ish. My dolls were white except for my foreign doll collection. I don't wear makeup. But the default is and has been white. In my field - librarianship, the subjects for books are based on the assumption that white men are the default. Astronauts. Poets. Anything else has something added to denote otherness such as African American, or women, or African American women. The entire society is built on this construct. We need to chip away at it. But it is an awkward conversation.
