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Guide To White Privledge
Guide To White Privledge
Guide To White Privledge
But
I
never
had
any
white
privilege.
No
one
ever
gave
me
anything.
I
worked
for
everything
I
ever
got.
Even
though
I
knew
better,
I
once
had
the
same
kinds
of
Hleeting
thoughts.
I
was
wrong
and
so
are
you.
In
my
case,
after
being
returned
to
my
mother
from
foster
care
when
the
State
removed
us
for
not
having
sufHicient
food
or
heat
in
the
house,
our
family
moved
to
a
community
where
we
were
one
of
only
a
handful
of
white
families.
As
the
minority
in
our
neighborhood,
I
was
both
befriended
and
picked
on.
I
made
plenty
of
friends,
and
the
more
time
I
spent
with
them,
the
more
racism
I
watched
them
face.
When
we
went
to
the
public
library,
at
one
time
or
another,
I
saw
a
friend
accused
of
stealing
a
video
or
book
when
they
had
not.
When
we
went
to
the
McDonalds
on
the
other
side
of
town,
I
was
stunned
to
be
harassed
by
a
hostile
group
of
white
men
who
told
us
to
get
back
to
our
side
of
town
or
else.
When
my
boyfriend,
who
was
black,
and
I
were
driving
on
the
other
side
of
town,
we
were
pulled
over
for
no
reason
by
the
police
and
harassed,
searched,
and
intimidated
for
over
an
hour.
On
the
other
hand,
I
experienced
prejudice.
My
best
friends
mother
hated
white
people,
and
she
did
not
bother
to
hide
that
when
I
came
over.
I
was
suspended
for
Highting
three
times
by
the
tenth
grade,
and
I
started
exactly
zero
of
the
Hights.
Each
of
the
Hights
had
racial
overtones
with
the
perpetrator
seemingly
starting
the
conHlict
because
I
was
white.
We
had
had
no
prior
quarrel.
However,
I
say
I
experienced
prejudice
rather
than
racism,
because
I
Hirmly
believe
that
racism
must
be
bigotry
combined
with
institutional
power.
Only
white
people
have
institutional
power
and
maintain
the
capacity
to
exercise
oppression.
People
of
other
races
can
mistreat
white
people,
but
they
dont
have
the
power
to
practice
racism.
Yet,
even
believing
all
of
this,
when
I
entered
my
Hirst
multicultural
education
class
as
a
college
student,
I
balked
when
I
was
told
I
had
white
privilege.
I
could
accept
that
people
of
color
faced
oppression
and
racism.
I
could
accept
that
white
people
perpetrated
abuses
and
even
that
their
institutions
were
biased
against
anyone
who
wasnt
white.
But,
I
was
stalled
at
accepting
the
notion
that
I
had
white
privilege.
How
could
I,
a
woman
who
had
asked
other
school
children
for
the
leftovers
on
their
lunch
plates
when
I
was
in
elementary
school
be
privileged?
How
could
I,
someone
who
had
a
job
by
age
8,
a
job
that
caused
multiple
bouts
of
frostbite
and
a
bad
back,
be
advantaged
in
any
way?
What
about
the
years
spent
with
a
suicidal,
mentally
ill
mother
who
left
me
in
the
position
of
raising
four
younger
brothers
and
sister
when
I
was
ten
years
old?
That
was
misery,
not
privilege.
Right?
Teachers
assigned
me
the
ubiquitous
reading,
Unpacking
the
Invisible
Knapsack
of
White
Privilege,
by
Peggy
MacIntosh,
but
Dr.
MacIntosh
made
the
mistake
of
putting
items
in
that
version
of
her
list
that
represented
economic
privilege,
not
racial
privilege,
so
immediately,
I
disagreed
with
the
list.
She
has
since
revised
it.
It
was
then
that
a
skilled
multicultural
educator
at
the
University
of
Michigan
asked
me
to
look
at
the
list
and
see
what
I
could
own.
He
asked
me
to
make
my
own
list,
because
as
he
said,
I
know
you
can
do
this.
I
went
away
and
in
the
end
produced
a
product
that
would
become
a
book
chapter
in,
Explorations
in
Privilege,
Oppression,
and
Diversity,
by
Anderson
and
Middleton.
I
could
now
embrace
what
being
white
had
gotten
me.
My
elementary
school
teachers
initially
labeled
me
as
slow,
probably
because
we
moved
so
many
times
in
my
Hirst
grade
year,
but
a
third
grade
teacher
changed
all
that
and
had
me
entered
into
the
gifted
program.
The
odds
that
plucking
a
poor
child
out
of
the
academic
abysses
would
happen
for
a
person
of
color
are
essentially
nil.
Teachers
expect
less
from
people
of
color,
and
expectations
have
a
dramatic
impact
on
outcomes.
I
was
hired
for
numerous
jobs
growing
up
that
I
have
little
conHidence
my
Black
friends
would
have
gotten.
These
jobs
seemed
burdensome
at
the
time,
but
they
helped
me
and
my
family
at
very
precarious
moments.
Then,
my
junior
year
of
high
school,
I
was
about
to
be
expelled
for
too
many
absences
to
my
Hirst
class
of
the
day.
I
worked
too
much,
too
late,
too
often,
and
overslept
for
that
class
way
too
many
times.
I
believe
that
being
white
helped
me
A Guide to White Privilege for White People Who Think Theyve Never Had
Any was written by Deborah Foster for PoliticusUSA.
PoliticusUSA, Sun, Jan 26th, 2014 All Rights Reserved