I identify as and am perceived as white in a culture that has been built for whiteness. I see white people blanche when I say the words “white people” to them, though they have no qualms about labeling marginalized groups by their skin color. I try to lift up and support the voices of authors, artists, activists, and friends who are BIPOC. Being white in the U.S. has absolutely given me privileges that should be available to all, but in our society, frequently are not. I have no problem finding representation of myself in books, movies, media, or academic articles. I see the way some white authors will write about an entirely white cast of characters with minimal descriptors, and then throw one Person Of Color character into the book and every single time the character appears, these white authors will use a new descriptor to point out the character's skin tone, as if that is the only thing that defines that character. It almost reads as if the authors are patting themselves on the back for being "so culturally aware". I have been treated differently, with more respect, than racist white people would treat someone in my position who was a Person of Color. I see this, and I know the damage it causes, as for my entire life, I have watched as I have been treated with less respect and dignity than others in my position who were men, who were straight, who were more similar to the demographic in power. 

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          I would like to share with you some stories, that I feel best exemplify how I have witnessed white privilege play out during my life.

 

• While waiting for the 2020 presidential election results to be solidified, I went to the hardware store to get some supplies for crafting, to try and manage almost crippling anxiety. The cashier and a customer, both white, both men, were talking loudly about how Trump was the best president, disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement, and spouting ignorant and hateful rhetoric from the front of the store. I couldn't even speak. It seems surreal to be so hateful and ignorant, though it is obviously common in this country. I left the store quickly. As I passed the checkout empty handed, they tried to talk to me and I couldn't even look at them. I just wanted to explain to them how awful Trump is. How he supports sexual assault, the separation of families, racism, and horrific camps. But how do you explain basic human rights and 2nd grade level empathy to people who have chosen white supremacy and hate? The quote that kept popping in my head was: "To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead." -Thomas Paine. 

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• In 2020, when I saw that statistics showed 55% of white women had voted for Trump (Essence, 2020), I was horrified. This was a man with at least 29 counts of sexual assault against womxn and who had campaigned and led the country by harnessing misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and ignorance. Yet still, white women had felt they would not be affected by his madness and supported him. I channeled a lot of that emotion and frustration into my coursework, completing a data analysis for my research course, which I titled "The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, Patriarchy, Misogyny, Socialized Psychopaths, and White Women". It got 100%. 

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• I was raised in a city that legally segregated itself in 2018 without officially using the word "segregation" (Clark, 2019). I encourage you to read up on Baton Rouge vs. St. George. Its horrifying.

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• In this same city, in that same year, I was walking to work when I found a bloody, unconscious, man who was Black, in the middle of the sidewalk. I was not the only person around. No one had acknowledged that there was a visibly injured and unconscious person lying on the ground and not moving. Only once I had stopped to help, did other people seem to pop out of the wood work, all expressing concern...for me. They were worried I might get hurt. The fact that no one else stopped, or even expressed concern for this man, and that people only reacted once I had already called for help, and that they were mainly concerned for me, was incredibly horrifying. The more I think about it, the more it upsets me. The day that this occurred had been a rare day where I had put effort into my appearance. I was a (somewhat) well dressed, white, small, woman. People were reacting for my safety, but there was a visibly injured, older, black, unconscious, man lying on the ground, unresponsive, and twitching, and no one stopped. No one else tried to help him. This is an example of white privilege. There was a human being who needed immediate help and people who could have helped looked the other way.

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• The next month, in that same city, I saw a march made up of 99% white men, shirtless, carrying American flags and what looked like assault rifles slung casually across their bare shoulders, wrists dangling over the barrels as they walked down the street towards me. They were being escorted down a highway by ambulances with flashing lights as they marched. This was only two years after, in this very same city, only a handful of miles away, Alton Sterling, a man who was Black, was shot and killed by police for selling CDs at a local food mart. These white marchers had signs like "don't fuck with our guns", and were all wearing something (be it strictly underwear, bandanas, or gym shorts) in army green. It made me feel sick and hopeless.

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          I look at how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting historically excluded communities who have been subject to entrenched inequity in the U.S. For instance, Serres writes:

"The coronavirus is killing Indigenous Peoples at staggeringly high rates, inflicting incalculable trauma and exposing historic gaps in the predominantly white-owned funeral services industry. Only a handful of morticians in the region have specialized training in the diverse Indigenous customs that follow a tribal member's death and know how to navigate the complex process for arranging burials on reservations. Overwhelmed by an upsurge of bodies, these funeral directors are being forced to turn away many Native families, depriving them of a traditional ceremony and emotional closure" (Serres, 2021, p. 1).

Not only is Covid-19 affecting the Indigenous Nations at unprecedented rates, due to inequity and white privilege, even the dignity of culturally appropriate burial services is not readily available to them. White people are not facing this issue.

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          In a culture rife with white privilege, media representations of Indigenous women are so horrifically warped, that a test was created, just for them get a small amount of the representation and basic dignity that is given to white people.

"Tired of seeing bland and underdeveloped portrayals of indigenous women, Anishinaabe writer Ali Nahdee came up with the Aila test — a three-question assessment that seeks to evaluate the quality of indigenous female characters....Ali Nahdee: The Aila test is three questions (about a film’s character): One, is she an indigenous/aboriginal woman who is a main character; two, who does not fall in love with a white man; three, and does not end up raped or murdered at any point in the story?" (Vassar, 2020).

That is a low bar, yet very little media meets it. "Columbus Day", a federal holiday, celebrates a whitewashed version of the genocide of Indigenous Peoples by white colonizers, and perpetuates a false narrative to ease a national guilt. America was never great. It was a society built by and for white, straight, cis, men, on top of the carnage of pretty much everyone else. Acknowledging this, and looking at ways for everyone to be able to share in true equity in an inequitable society, is how to build a culture of empathetic kindness and growth.