I think about this a lot and it bothers me. I would never for a second argue that everyone gets a fair shot at life, reality is too often cruel and tragic, and I think having a goal of equality and fairness between citizens is one of the most wonderful things to have . . . but . . . there's a difference between treating everyone equally, listening to everyone equally, holding everyone to the same standard, and forcing equality by harming and penalizing some (for the color of their skin alone), silencing their voices, expression, and holding them to different standards and even lying to accentuate suffering (because suffering seems to be a currency these days). The first one takes longer but the results are permanent and worth it.
Want to hear a funny story?
So, you know those ancestry.com ads, they always allude to an unkown family history that's royal or special. Wellll, in a fairly successful attempt to bond with my mother, I did our family ancestry.
Guess what I found out about my white privilege:
-no one in my family could read or write until the 20th century
-no one in my family has ever graduated from university or trade school
-no one in my family has been anything but a salesman or a farmer [or model <3]
-there were lots of babies and mothers that died
-they came over on a big ship with legal papers calling them 'religious refugees' 300 years ago
-they have lived, despite being barefoot and toothless, happily in a small isolated farming community being the religious kooks that got them into trouble in their native country
-they never owned a single slave
-or participated in any KKK meetings
-or had any criminal records of a racial/hate crime nature
At first, I was embarrassed because I wasn't a long lost princess or related to Tesla. Fucking commercials! But then I realised . . . I'm not guilty. I have a my own share of 'sins of thy father' to contend with but none of them were racism. No one in my family seemed to even participate in racially determined institutions like college or government. The idea that **all** white people have, through antiquity, worked actively to suppress other races isn't true and that's why you have to either ditch 'white privilege' or go alllll the fucking way with the determinism/authoritarianism and make every white person keep records for their privileged status and punish them accordingly, right? Seems fair. I've got mine!
Another thought:
Do you think someone who'd dismisses my arguments on the grounds of my 'white privilege' would be happy to know my family didn't violate any human rights? Do you think they are happy, relieved, or even critical for more information when I cite historical evidence (that took me 5 minutes to find) for dreads being used around the world for millennia? It seems like something that would make the socially-conscious person so happy to know--"Alas, the world is not quite so terrible as it once seemed." But no. They're either angry . . . or they run away.
