The first time I heard the term “white privilege” it left a sour taste in my mouth. It felt like an attack on my character. “I’m not a racist. How dare they call me privileged.” Then I decided to try and understand why white people were being called privileged. When I thought about it, I realized that privilege has always been a positive term in my life. It meant I was getting something that other people didn’t get, usually because I earned it. It was a reward of sorts. Dictionary.com describes privilege as “a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.” I didn’t earn being white, I just am. It has provided me with opportunities that people of color often struggle to obtain. I didn’t realize it at the time because I was only focused on myself and not thinking of people of color, probably because there weren’t many people of color in my life.
I’m no longer in denial about my privilege, so I am encouraging others to seek understanding. This isn’t a political post to be debated. It’s the truth. As Dr. Phil would say, “You can’t fix what you can’t acknowledge.” This is me, acknowledging that I am a privileged white person. I am not ashamed of that because I didn’t do it on purpose, I was simply born white. It’s not a bad thing to be privileged unless you refuse to acknowledge it. Privilege isn’t a bad word, but it’s an accurate word to describe the head start that white people had when our country was founded.
We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go. If this post makes you angry and itching to debate the topic, I won’t debate it with you. You are enjoying your privilege and don’t want to lose it. I don’t blame you. Life is hard and we want to take advantage of all the privileges that we have, especially the easy ones, like skin color. I’m not saying white people don’t struggle or work really hard. I got married at 18, had two kids by the time I was 21, and we struggled financially for more than a decade. It did not feel like privilege when we received WIC vouchers so that we could feed our kids. But that’s not the point! We all struggle to survive in one way or another. Privilege is not something that is specific to one person’s story. Privilege is something that our founding fathers provided to white people during a time when black people were thought of as property, not as humans.
I have a lot more to learn. I can’t make white people learn alongside me, but I hope some will. This is important stuff. Remember this song? “Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white; all are precious in his site.” I’m trying to be a better human. That’s all.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
#whiteprivilege
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