Whiteness/White Privilege – February 24

           While growing up on the northwest side of Regina, I would say I was surrounded by more white families than not. There weren’t many kids around in that area so my cousins would come over and we would play games and sometimes the neighborhood kids would come to join. Growing up I remember playing with white barbies, white Poly Pockets, only having the lighter/lightly tanned Bratz dolls and having only the white Cabbage Patch dolls. As a child, I went to a primarily white elementary school, we did not have many kids of other races. As school went on, we started to get a few more, mainly students from the Philippines or Africa. Once I went into high school I noticed a bigger variety of students from all over, although it was still a primarily white school. Growing up, I never felt like I experienced any white privilege, my family worked very hard to get where we are now.

           While reading McIntosh’s article, there was one point that stuck with me. While reading I found number 41, which says, “I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.” Back in 2016, I got very sick and I was in and out of hospitals all summer. While constantly being in the hospital, I had some moments where I was taken back before others who had been waiting a long time, but I also had moments where I was the only one in the emergency room and it took an hour to take me back for some reason. When I would get taken back before anyone else, I never thought it could be because of my race, I always just thought “they think I’m sick enough to take me back first”.  Thinking back to these moments, I feel as if I had more “privilege” over the people sitting in the waiting room, just waiting to go back.

           As a future teacher, I have a better understanding of my race and it will help me with my future classrooms. I want to make my students aware of the racism that still exists. I want my students to feel safe enough with me to come to tell me if something is happening to them because they may not be white and maybe getting bullied because of it. Although this is all a very sensitive topic, it is something that needs to be discussed. While being in school, I didn’t hear/learn anything about it before I started University. I would like my students to be aware of it and have them not act as if they are better than anyone else because of their race.