I love being white.
I love it simply because my life is easier, and to use a
currently popular word, privileged.
I do not live in fear of police officers. When I see lights
behind me, I am stressed out because I don’t want to pay a ticket- not because
I might be ____ . (Enter your own word for the various fates possible here). I can't stop reading the story of Sandra Bland. After everything that has happened I am still in disbelief that this is happening in America in 2015.
I can hail a taxicab anywhere I want any time of day or not.
I am not seen as a threat due to centuries of stereotypes. No one has ever
covered their face and hung my relatives from a tree. No one mocks my accent-
because I don’t have one. No one calls me slur words. My history is front and
present in textbooks. No gaps are left out because they’re just too ugly for
children to witness.
I worry about my brother every single day. He is 21. He is
tall and when it is cold out, will walk around wearing a hoodie. He would argue with an authority
figure when he believes they are out of line. He has broken the law and dealt
with the consequences already in his young life. He is tall, he is strong, he
has tattoos. I worry constantly about him getting into a car with someone who
has been drinking- or drinking and driving himself. I worry about him not
applying himself as well as he could. I worry that he is irresponsible with his
money and his time.
I don’t ever worry
for one single moment of my life that he is going to be attacked by someone (a
cop)- especially when he isn’t doing anything wrong. It just doesn’t cross
my mind as a worry. Because he is white and the odds of that happening are so
much less- just because he is white.
I see young black boys in my store, on the train, in the
bodegas, on the streets- they could all be my brother. But they are black and
that is all that separates them. And so while my mother prays her son starts
seriously thinking of his future career, their mothers pray their sons make it
home alive tonight.
I can’t get on the Internet, pick up a paper, turn on the
TV, or listen to the radio without hearing that someone who is a minority has
been wrongly accused/attacked/shot by a white figure, often a police officer. I
don’t know if the media attraction is making this more commonplace but it is
like the goddamn 60s in Mississippi all over again!
So here I am. I am white. I am culturally recognized as a
middle class white educated young woman. I am safe from authority figures going
wild on me because I put my hand in my pocket and they thought I had a gun.
There is a reason
that the phrase white privilege exists.
BECAUSE I AM WHITE, LIFE WILL ALWAYS BE EASIER FOR ME.
My children’s lives will be better than the lives of the
children born by POC.
I am so so sad that this is the case, but it is the truth.
Let’s stop hiding from the truth.
Mother’s are burying their young sons too often. Police
officers are committing crimes and
nothing is happening! And we (white people) can't wait for pumpkin flavors to be back on the shelves in a few months. Is the value of our skin greater than the value of theirs?
“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?” - Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”
This is the same story we have been telling again and again. It is our job to protect each other from ourselves. Why are we failing so miserably? Why are our souls and hearts so calloused? Who raised us!? Who taught us to forgo the good Samaritan and watch black boys bleed out on the ground as we continue onto yoga and coffee.
"There are two types of evil in this world: those who do evil
stuff and those who see evil stuff being done and don’t try to stop it." (What good would this be without a Mean Girls
quote?)
Which one are you?
Will you hide behind the cowardice of a flag and not stand
up for some who grew up under the same flag receiving a different treatment in
life than you? Will you stand beside your religion and say that if they had just not stolen from that convenience store / sold those illegal cigarettes/ gotten rowdy on the train they would be fine.
Because here is the difference. Many many many people do those things. Do they deserve to die for them?
Because here is the difference. Many many many people do those things. Do they deserve to die for them?
So which person are you? Do you do evil things- or do you just sit by and watch them happen with silence?
I think the second person is the more evil- and I believe
that is the umbrella we all fall under more often. Grow a fucking backbone and
don’t stand for the injustice anymore. Support black lives. Support the justice
of those who lose their lives. Do not fall under the guise of the falseness of
how a man in uniform upholds the law to the best extent. How many more young
(black) lives need to be lost before someone says enough is enough.
If you won’t, I will.
Enough is enough.
And my voice is loud. My voice is loud because it is a white
voice. The oppressed can scream until their vocal chords bleed, but if their
voices hold no clout, if no one hears them, it is moot.
But my voice is not oppressed. Someone might listen. But my
voice is one voice. And it won’t get very far. But what if you add yours. And
he adds his. And she adds hers; isn’t that how we change the world?
Shylock:
“To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it
will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered
me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked
at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains,
cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies;
and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not
a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? fed with
the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to
the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a
Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed?
if you tickle us, do we
not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us,
shall we not
revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble
you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what
is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian
example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach
me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will
better the instruction.” - The Merchant of Venice Act 3 Scene 1
By
no means was Shylock the most upstanding human in literary history- but that
does not invalidate the points he makes in this scene. Historically, for
whatever reason, majority of the world has hated the Jews. And Shylock bore the
brunt of this in The Merchant of Venice. But why? Because he is a Jew? Is that the crime of his life, is this what will condemn him
and lead him to his death?
If
you are a man and you see a woman being attacked/harassed/drugged by another
man it is your obligation to help her.
You hold the position of privilege. If you are an authority figure and for some
godforsaken reason feel that a teenager is “seducing” you, it is your obligation to get the fuck out of that situation. You are
the adult; you hold the position of privilege
Privilege is a circle. We each own it from time to time. It is power. And with great power
comes great responsibility. Uncle Ben taught us all that.
Black
lives matter.
Be
on the right side of history.
Stand
up for what is right or sit the fuck down and shut up- you’re getting in my
way.
