White Privilege

I understand. I have seen it, have read it. But I have not experienced what it means to be black in this country. Founded on slavery, racism is deeply imbedded. It is different from the newly established hatred for the ones who arrive here from other countries, (Trump’s nastiness and hate made manifest)or even for the Native Americans who the white men slaughtered when we arrived on THEIR shore. Black education takes a back seat to white education. The schools where blacks go are not funded properly. They begin their lives at a disadvantage, and it continues on from there. Arrested for nothing, killed for no reason, incarcerated for no real cause. The list goes on.

I was walking in the woods when I heard the conversation behind me. Three white people discussing the protests. They weren’t bad people, per se. Probably democrats, and yet what they were saying and how they were saying it made my blood boil. Perhaps I should have stopped and confronted them — there was a part of me that wanted to. But I didn’t. “Yes, I totally agree,” the woman said when the man stated flatly that protests were ok but the violence was not called for. How the fuck do you know? I wanted to scream. Are you black? What gives you the right to pass judgement on their anger or what they’re experiencing right now? My feeling is that white people have no business even discussing this. And just the sheer smugness of thinking you know better pisses me off. Is this white privilege? I think it is. The idea that you have the answers, that you know better, that you can make a blanket statement that you know absolutely…