Privilege 0
Katie Elmore realizes that the most insidious aspect of privilege is that the privileged don’t notice that they are the privileged.
I can start by taking a good hard look at the woman in the mirror. I’m a white woman, born and raised in the South. I have benefited my entire life from all the privileges my whiteness allows me, usually never stopping to consider this unearned advantage. Is it possible that I am part of the problem? Indeed it is.
I am not a racist. I would never shoot anyone. I do not own a gun. I’m a pacifist to my core.
(snip)
The fact remains, unless I acknowledge my own white privilege, and unless I speak out against the scourge of racism, I am not blameless.
From my own experience, I bear witness that, even if one is not knowingly a racist, even if one consciously spurns racism and bigotry completely, growing up surrounded by racism taints one for life. The stereotypes, the mental pictures, the snap-judgements, the gut-reactions, they are always there, however much one knows that they are based on lies.
Do please follow the link.
