My White Privilege Moment Today

[vi5]

28. Been aware of this aspect of my white privilege since I was a stupid teenager

I was a punk kid in the 80's. Which means I dressed like a casting call for "warning" characters in an after school special. Dyed hair cut in freakish ways. Unnecessary combat boots. Lots of black t-shirts with offensive band names and sayings on them. Lots of leather jackets and accoutrements. And always a scowl on my face and a ready smart-assed remark.

I don't regret it nor am I saying kids shouldn't dress rebelliously. It's more by way of this particular subject and antidote.

Not surprisingly, I got hassled a lot by cops. Some of the times rightfully so, other times not so much and likely just because of how I looked and the crowd I hung out with.

One particular time I was clearly incensed by my treatment and was relaying the story of this injustice to my parents (who their credit, despite being nerdy, straight laced children of the 50's/60's were very patient and tolerant with this phase of my life). My mom said to me "Look, all of this may be unfair and you probably are getting judged on your appearance. But know this: You can take off those clothes any time you want. You can cut your hair any time you want. You can start saying "Yes sir and no sir" to the police any time you want. And all of this hassle that you complain about and this treatment from people in positions of authority will likely go away, or go mostly away. Now imagine this treatment was because of your skin color. Or your gender. Or who you loved. And you couldn't change that. No matter how hard you tried or no matter how hard you wanted to. You would be forced to spend your whole life with this injustice looking over your shoulder and with this threat of hassle."

It was at that moment and every day since then that I've been fully aware of the things I DON'T have to worry about because of my skin color (and as a male, my gender). I'm not saying it made me change over night into some short haired, golf shirt and khaki wearing preppy. Hell, much to my wife's chagrin I still dress like I'm out of step (at least compared to other 48 year old white dudes). But that lecture from my mom sticks in my mind to this day, and I try to live every day appreciative of that fact and try to work to make sure all people get treated that fairly, and fighting the injustices that prevent that. I wish I could say I was always successful, but I'm human. I'd just like to think I have more better days where I remember than bad days where I forget.