White Privilege Is NOT the Same As White Racism
While I would never say this with the intention of offending anyone, I honestly do, and have always believed that all babies are born devoid of hate in any form, including racism. Tragically, many American babies are born into homes where hate (and racism) are taught almost from the first day. Even if the pseudo-evidence I have provided elsewhere may fail to be adequate:
I believe that countless millions of innocent babies, including myself, were born into such homes where racism was never a factor in interacting with others. Or at least until children became emotionally mature enough to understand what was happening in the world around them, frequently when reaching school age, and then made their own choices. (Speaking for myself only, seeing hate and racism seems to have firmly cemented my commitment to global equality and justice. It was never a “Hmmm…I gotta think about this” moment. I remember going to my 4th grade classroom the day after Dr. King (a man I admired immensely then, and no less now) was murdered, and I saw two of my classmates happily playing “sniper”. I remember so distinctly (as I so vividly remember many of the racial injustices I observed when young) because it was so undeniably wrong, and I had no idea how to process the hate I was too young (and too white) to understand.)
Unfortunately, people of color have little choice but to learn about racism, if only as a defense (rather, survival) mechanism. Yes, children of color WILL encounter hate, so it is best they be prepared. I understand the privilege I was born into (even while being proverbially “dirt poor”), though that WAS something I had to learn about. (Just as I wasn’t taught to hate, neither was I taught that I was “special” because I’m white. Or that I was privileged, and those are two VERY different things. Yes, I have privilege because I am white; no, I do not feel special because I am white.)
I suspect, as well as hope, that in the single nation of America there have been millions of babies to never “learn” to hate based on skin color (and thus never had need to “learn” to stop hating.) I presume many of the original white Freedom Riders fit in that category, as well as perhaps the martyred Mr. Goodman and Mr. Schwerner (not ignoring Mr. Cheney) and the many hundreds (likely thousands) of white Americans lynched as “race traitors” since the Civil War. And let’s not forget Newton Knight. While it’s a tragic truth that following the Civil War white men had more power than Black men, that also meant that the punishment was also greater if white men used that power to assist their Black friends and neighbors in any manner. If the historical evidence of Mr. Knight is only fractionally true, it seems this was a white man who never felt racism in his own heart, and never backed down when confronted by it either. (I’m not talking “white savior”. I’m saying, “the person with the shovel, regardless of race, should start the digging.”)
In this horribly awkward way, what I am saying is, “True, I will never know the same pain of racism directed at my very white self that countless millions of people of color will feel. But that does not mean that I am, or ever was a monster who hated others because of the color of their skin compared to mine. Many of us are involved in this fight, not because of guilt or “changes”, but because of the unquestionable knowledge, brought into this world through the birth canal, that hate is simply wrong.”
Yes, many, many white people need to change. Others of us have rejoiced in the concept of equality since our earliest memories. And this is something I sincerely believe we should (silently) celebrate; that racism is NOT universal among white people. (Even if white privilege is universal, and an imbalance badly in need of correcting.)
With this I will leave, and hope to offend no more.
