Discussion Provocation #2
If you are white, you immediately have white privilege. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, young, or old, if you are white you have privilege. Because of the colour of your skin, you are given an unearned advantage in life to things such as education, employment, health and safety, etc. To say you are not racist and then continue to take advantage of your unearned benefits is why white fragility still exists and continues to be a barrier in the fight against racism. So many people today refuse to talk about their “whiteness” because they do not see themselves as part of the problem. They see themselves on the side of the solution because they “love all people and think racism is bad”, yet they continue to refuse the idea of white privilege for a variety of reasons. Maybe because they have had hardships in their life that would contradict the idea of having privilege or maybe because they simply refuse to believe the concept exists. It would be a perfect world If everyone took their whiteness and used it to the advantage to fight for those who are disadvantaged from birth. the disappointing part is that this idea is so far-fetched because of the refusal to believe that being white gives you the power to start a conversation and help the movement that would take steps forward to end racism and oppression against those who. No one is innocent if they don’t talk about the benefits of their whiteness. If they stay silent, they have chosen the side of the oppressors.
When I read those articles that call out white privilege it’s uncomfortable. But a good kind of uncomfortable. The concept of white privilege as the normal narrative needs to be talked about so it can be dismantled and built into something that benefits all people. It needs to be written, read and talked about more and more frequently to help get more people comfortable in talking about their whiteness instead of refusing the concept. But, there are still groups out there who dedicate their life to embracing their “whiteness” and oppressing those who are different makes the fight so much harder for us who are willing to listen, learn, and educate others.
3 thoughts on “Discussion Provocation #2”
Hi Lyndzee, first off thanks for sharing your thoughts! I completely agree with what you’re saying, white privilege exists whether the person believes it does or not. I like that you admitted that it was uncomfortable, because it is, and a lot of people turn away from speaking about it or taking action because who wants to voluntarily feel uncomfortable? You wrote that “If everyone took their whiteness and used it to the advantage…” – how exactly would white people use it to the advantage of helping POC? Is it simply speaking about it, admitting it, participating in protests? I implore you and whoever else is reading this to think, what can people truly do that would help others or make a change, other than being a decent human being? I feel people don’t want to explore this because in the grand scheme of things, we are all specks of dust, what will my one single voice do to make a change? It’s difficult, and honestly I don’t have an answer but it’s interesting to think about. It’s easy to say that white people should be using their advantage to help others, but how? What will be enough to make a change?
You made a lot of good points, points that surprisingly a large number of people would find ridiculous such as stating that staying silent is equivalent to being an active oppressor – it really is! Great piece.
Hi Lyndzee! Your story was great to read, and you did an excellent job at activating the idea that “white privilege” is a vital topic, and anyone with the colour of skin that is white already has it. From the moment you are born, and you have white skin, you have white privilege. This understanding for a lot of people, as you said, scares them, and they disagree. Being uncomfortable is important to focus on because it’s the feeling that white privilege is real. And after that uncomfortable feeling has been felt, is when the change needs to happen. It’s a sad and disappointing world we live in where we have gone so far, and no change has occurred. But my question is, why? Why can’t we come together as “humans” and work to create a better world? Why is that so hard for us a generation?
Hey Lyndzee I really enjoyed your piece. The idea of white privilege is something I really struggle with because of the place that I grew up. I’m from a small town with very few visible minorities so to me, when I look around my town, the only people I see struggle are people that look like me. However, that is probably because of my own ignorance. I have been learning a lot from this course and now realize people with white skin definitely have certain advantages. So I have two questions for you, you say white people have a voice and want people to speak out against white privilege, what could be a few examples of how to do that? My second question is, what are ways that I could better myself to see white privilege, like what are some of the things that you do that I could possibly try?