My Take on White Privilege

**Disclaimer: I have been writing blog posts for the training clinic I am interning with, and some of the posts for that site are posted here. **The following post is not one of those. This is my independent set of opinions, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Psychological Services Center.**


To be white in this country comes with great privilege. We don't see it because it acts like a little bubble, protecting us from the horrors others experience. Our world isn't filled with experiences of prejudice, discrimination, or racism (obviously there are other situations where this isn't true, like with the case of the LGBTQ+ and disabled population, but that's not what I'm getting at). Our understanding of another's experience is greatly influenced by the way we've experienced life, and we don't like facing it. It's uncomfortable.

Especially in this day and age, when this country seems so progressive, and so culturally sophisticated, for someone to suggest that you could be privileged in a way that others aren't, or that you are living in a place where systemic racism still exists, it's almost like a reflex to respond, "no, I'm not."

White privilege is a buzzword, and can be conflated with a lot of other concepts that are politically undesirable, but the concept itself is simple, yet complex: because you're white, you get to have things that people who aren't white don't get to have.

It sounds unfair, and on the surface might sound untrue, because "this is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the melting pot, the land of opportunity! It's 2020, we've had a Black president! We have laws!"

Yes, well....

The huge influx we're getting now of people who are telling their stories says otherwise. I can only imagine what it's like to have these stories, experiencing the things that BIPOC experience, and just accepting them as reality.

Reflecting on the fact that we are getting an influx of stories now, the first thought that runs through my mind is, "I never knew all this was happening to so many people around me."

Of course I didn't. What would happen if these beautiful human beings shared the encounters of racism, discrimination, and prejudice that they face every day with those of us who don't?

Humans have this thing called a "righting reflex." It's a desire to make "right" a thing that seems out of whack. It tends to happen when things make us uncomfortable and we want to minimize it so it's not so uncomfortable anymore.

When someone tells us a story of difficulty, we tend to respond with something like, "it'll get better!" or "I'm sure everything will turn out fine." We can't sit in the discomfort and let the "not fine" be "not fine." We feel this inexorable need to fix it. 

And the extreme creepy uncle of the righting reflex is "gaslighting," where our good intentions to support people results in us making them out to be incompetent. "I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you think it was." "You're probably overreacting." "But they weren't saying that!" "They're not like that though, you don't know them like I do. They would never be like that to you."

I can only imagine what it's like to try to tell the story of your life, and to hear that in response. I am so sorry if that response was ever mine.

What would it be like to sit in the discomfort? What would it be like to just believe someone when they say that the cashier treated them differently than the white person in front of them? Why would that be so difficult to do?

Please, stop being divisive. People are hurting, and they are angry. Love them, support them, be there with them as the world is blowing up around them. 

And for the love of God, learn something. Don't act like you already know everything you need to know - guess what, that's privilege. Learn about how racism is a lot bigger than police brutality, or the KKK. Learn about the ways it affects BIPOC on a day-to-day basis, and learn about the things that you take for granted as things that others don't even get to enjoy.

That's what I'm doing.