The Black "We" and the White "I"

[haele]

40. White liberal here, too...but I am not afraid or feel guilty to admit there's a "tribal identity"

that can become a door rather than a window.

Being told there's "white privilege" can go several different ways.

It's either going to be a wedge, or it can be a "come together" realization.

Why is there white privilege should be the question? - Because there is. This country was built on white privilege, whether a person who is primarily Caucasian in background cares to take advantage of it or not.

See, the truth is, the very first thing that people notice will about you when they see you, even from a distance, or in dim light, is the color of your skin. Above gender, above age. I can't escape it. People know I'm white. You can't escape it, not from the distance, not due to the light.
Race is the first thing people are going to react to when they see you.
Example - it's evening and I'm visiting a friend in a middle class neighborhood I've never been to before and caught a glimpse of a black man in the next-door yard walking up to a window of the house with tools in his hand.
The automatic question that comes to mind with a lot of people, no matter the race of the observer - this is a nice neighborhood - does he live there, and is fixing the window screen - or is he a burglar?
I will admit thinking that, and then immediately banishing it as a stupid thought. Does that make me racist, or a product of the society in which we live?
My real guilty self-question would be - would I think the same if I caught a glimpse of a white man, or an Asian man, or a Hispanic man in the same situation?

What it comes to is that white people, or those who "pass" don't have to worry that the color of their skin is going to work against them when dealing with the law, or in other social interactions. They default to "normal" in Media. They're the target audience. They aren't going to be pulled over for DWB in a nice car, they're going to have to do more than that to get the attention of the cops.
While they might get shot, or targeted, their race won't be the prime reason they were noticed in the first place.
It is a privilege - not to have assumptions made against you because of your race. Well, except assumptions made against you from people who are actually being targeted initially because of their race...

And it's a bitter truth for a lot of white people to swallow. They want to be "better than that". I understand, I want to be better than a thoughtlessly reactive "default to racist" white "dude".
Blame society. Blame history. Blame whatever. But it's still a privilege granted us as light-skinned people solely due to our skin tone. So why don't we all just accept it - and move to work on the solution to it?

Solutions that include a better sense, more inclusive definition of community rather than tribe. Better training for police. Better adherence to the laws that protect the rights of all citizens.
Pointing out assholes that are trying to build a wall of words that they've co-opted and twisted to hide their greed, fear and guilt behind.

And we can still do all of this while working on the privileges of class and gender too. Inclusiveness shouldn't diminish.
Nothing in the world says we can't be inclusive - that we can't both walk and chew gum, is there?

Haele