My Thoughts....

Today someone called me a "cold, white supremacist". I'm not. I am white, I have unearned privilege and I've been conditioned in this society. Does that make me racist? No, what it does make me is privileged. I don't get stopped by the police regularly, I don't have to quell my strong opinions in order to make other people feel safe, I don't get demonized based on the color of my skin, if I talk loudly - I'm simply talking loudly, I don't have to shop in a special section for hair products, people don't cross the street when I'm walking towards them and I'm not overly represented in the criminal justice system.

I am aware of my white privilege but that does not negate the instances where my moving among new cultures or new environments doesn't create awkwardness. Is this simply because I'm white or is it because I am uninformed of the social norms and values of this new environment? Am I so entrenched in my own experience that I don't pay attention to the clues being given? The latter is true, sometimes I'm so into MY experience of sights and sounds and stimulus that I may miss social clues. Is this a direct result of my whiteness or is it human? I don't know. Perhaps it is my whiteness and the ease with which I move through the world that allows this to happen? Is this a manifestation of white supremacy? I don't know that either. For sure it's not intentional but if that's the perception, what is my role in dismantling that perception?

This is a constant process, a constant analysis of my place in this world. Tim Wise tells a moving story about his mom at the end of her life and how her conditioning in this society manifested itself. Is this conditioning more prevalent in my life than I wish to acknowledge?

I'm working on it...