This Girl Just Explained White Privilege In A Way Anyone Can Understand

[csziggy]

This Girl Just Explained White Privilege In A Way Anyone Can Understand, And People Are Loving It
written by Justin Luke on May 15th, 2017

She is aware of her white privilege, and how it has affected her life. So, in an attempt to help other white individuals see their privilege more clearly, Lundt wrote a Facebook post that has since gone viral. In the post, she describes a specific instance in her college life at Colgate.

Colgate recently made headlines when the school shut down for several hours after a black student was seen with a glue gun.

In her post, Lundt says that she has walked around campus many times holding a sword, and nobody has ever called the cops on her. This is something she attributed to her whiteness, saying, “People thought it was funny. People laughed – ‘oh, look at that harmless, silly white girl with a giant sword!!'”

The fact that the glue gun incident could happen is due to institutionalized racialism, Lundt said.

“If you think for even a second this wasn’t profiling, ask yourself why this sword is still in my room and has not ONCE made anyone uncomfortable,” she stated. “No one has EVER called the police on me. Understand that there are larger forces at play than this one night, and this one instance of racism. This is engrained in our university and our larger society. White Colgate students, we need to do better. #BlackLivesMatter.”
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[grantcart]

1. kick

You get discouraged by the lack of public reaction on the universities and then you see a great story like this.

Thanks

[nadine_mn]

2. There is one comment in the article that confuses me

"While Lundt has received praise, many people of color are upset that a post by a white individual seems to be what it takes for the message they’ve been trying spread for years to resonate."

The comment makes it seem like people of color are upset with her - which I'm assuming isn't true.

But this one sentence can lead some to say - "well no matter what you do it's going to be wrong" and detracts from the article.

It is one hundred percent a valid point and frustration that Black Lives Matter can work their butts off to push the same message and the only attention or press they may get is when they are accused of "rioting". Yet one white woman making the same point goes viral. This is a good discussion to have in this article, so it shouldn't be just a brief sentence that brings the young woman into it.

I don't know, maybe I am just nit picky...but that sentence really stood out defeating the whole purpose.

[LanternWaste]

3. I think your interpretation is inaccurate, as there is nothing structurally or in grammar

"The comment makes it seem like people of color are upset with her..."

I think your interpretation is inaccurate, as there is nothing in the structurally or in grammar pointing specifically to any concern or upset with white people, but rather to a concern (directly relevant to the black community) being dismissed, minimized, denied or trivialized over and over again... until finally voiced by a non-member of the black community-- an implication being that it's not a valid message until or unless said by the white community.

[forjusticethunders]

5. yeah when we say it it's just "race-baiting"

it's good that she broke it down like this - but it's sad that it often HAS to be a white face to get people to listen.

[nadine_mn]

13. That's fair - it's just how

it started:"While Lundt has received praise, many people.."

It just sounds like a "Yeah, but statement" I guess I would have preferred it be a stand alone point : "Many people of color...."

Like I said, nit picky I know...just how I read it seemed off. I am not at all saying that there is a problem with them mentioning the fact that there is outrage it took a white person to get attention. Like I said I agree with that. I just felt it could have been it's own statement.

I hear you though, that my reading of it is inaccurate. I may put too much into it.

[hunter]

7. It's a good thing we've got a white guy named Justin explaining what the white girl said...

... 'cause that makes it real.

[dembotoz]

4. absurdly true

[Johnny2X2X]

6. White privilege

What my white privilege has meant to me in the past is the chance to make mistakes.

I've done some stupid things in my life, and many times I've been let off the hook. Got pulled over and the officer found a bag of weed, he was nice enough to empty it into the sewer drain near where I pulled over and tell me to get on home. Was in middle school and riding my bike near my school, someone had backed into the gymnasium door and broke the lock, sure was fun riding our bikes around on the basketball court, got in trouble, but no one called the police. Just a ton of other times in my life where I'm sure things most likely would have went differently for me had I been black. Never been followed by security in a store. Never been harassed by the police outside of overzealous alcohol enforcement at college.

As a white person, your privilege allows you to make mistakes and learn from them the easy way more often than minorities. You're allowed to goof off and do something stupid without it ruining your life.

And the disparity in sentencing for Blacks and Hispanics vs Whites is absolutely the smoking gun. Why this disparity isn't talked about every day on the news is beyond me. Once again, in the legal system, white people are allowed to make mistakes without it destroying their lives much more often than minorities. The fact that a full 1/3 of adult black males are not allowed to vote because of this injustice should cause rallies and marches weekly.

[mountain grammy]

9. Exactly! and not even making mistakes, just being human,

like holding a toy gun from a display in a Walmart, or playing cops and robbers in the park with your sister can be the end of life without the "protection" of white skin.

[paulkienitz]

8. Jenny is totally boss

unless she's actually cutting people up like The Bride, in which case I take that back.




(I've certainly had my share of white privilege... like, when I was underachieving in high school, everyone bent over backward to try to push my academics back up where they belonged. Didn't see that happening for the black kids.)

(Also some male privilege, as I would hang out in bad neighborhoods and not notice they were bad until some woman told me how she was being treated there.)

[Xipe Totec]

10. Spot on! nt

[IronLionZion]

11. I can't be the only one who would fear a white female with a sword, right?

White women can be very dangerous



I wouldn't call the cops on her or the black student with glue gun. Plenty of white guys walk around open carrying real guns and it's just peachy. Meanwhile completely unarmed black males (and some females) had instant public executions for looking dangerous. Almost enough to make it worth looking into skin lightening creams and hair bleach. (not really)

[csziggy]

14. LOL! I'd forgotten about my experience with a sword and some thieves

We'd had a couple of break-ins at our rental house, so one day my husband left and I stayed home in the dark house without turning on lights, TV, or radio, or opening blinds. I waited with a stage sword my husband had gotten for his Society for Creative Anachronism costume.

I could hear the kids talking before they broke the kitchen window (for the third time) and sat in the dark living room until the two who actually entered passed me. Then I stood up with the sword and yelled, "STOP!" There I was a short, fat white woman with a long sword, emerging from what they had thought was an empty house.

The two kids split and ran past me, out the backdoor, past the third kid who was their lookout, leaving him standing there, going, "What?!" I managed to grab him but he twisted loose when he saw the sword.

Their panicked run down the street attracted attention and when the police asked around the neighborhood, all the neighbors identified them - it turned out most had suspected who had been doing all the break-ins in the neighborhood but no one wanted to turn them in.

In the long run we were persuaded to not press charges. The kids' parents paid for replacing the windows that had been broken. We were told that the event would remain on their records, which it did. A few years later when they broke into the elementary school in that little town, trashed the classrooms and set fire to the building, their past records got two of them charged as adults at the age of 17. The third - who I think was the lookout for the burglary of our house - was charged as a juvenile at 15 and put into the juvenile correction system.

I wonder if those boys had not been let off on their earlier crimes if they might not have ended up destroying many of the records of that little community and costing the county millions of dollars to rebuild the school. I wish their parents and the system had done more to teach them to be more responsible people.

I also wish I had pictures of me waving the sword at them - and of their faces when they saw me do that!

[IronLionZion]

15. Pics of that would have been awesome!

I had a long term relationship with a white Texan woman who kept guns in her house and her career Army father taught her how to shoot. One of her guns had been used to kill a bear in self defense. I could totally see her putting the fear of God into some boys if they broke in to her house.

White Women

[csziggy]

16. I'm not sure I would have confronted the kids with a gun

The sword was the best weapon we had at the time, other than walking sticks. We pretty much knew the burglars were kids - I just wanted to scare the shit out of them, not hurt them. I think it worked for a while!

After we moved out to the farm a friend insisted I buy a gun. He took me to a gun shop, helped me pick out a .22 High Standard Revolver, brought me back to the farm and gave me shooting lessons. The only time I've fired it since was at a diamond back rattler that was too close to the barn and other outbuildings. Right now it is in the care of some friends who have a gun safe. The .22 doesn't fit in our safe and I feel better knowing that it is safely stored. I really have no intention of ever firing it again.

[elmac]

12. The affects of White Privilege are compounded by rich privilege

All of us who are poor and middle class have been dealing with rich privilege for years. We are discriminated against by our tax system, banking system, justice system, housing, education, health care, ect... Rich privilege is worse for minorities, it adds layers of discrimination that seem impossible to cut through. Our capitalistic fascist system breeds inequality, racism, class systems and class warfare. Nothing will change while this system is in place.