To all the WoC OB this board - thank you. Thank you for the gift of opening our eyes. Especially this year, as a watershed year.
Even if I have not actively participated in conversations, I have read; I have listened. And it has made me a better person. More thoughtful. More likely to acknowledge my own privilege.
Thank you.
Happy Christmas!
This was basically what I wanted to say as well.
Thank you all. I haven't been participating as much because life is kind of crazy right now, but I am reading and listening. I am trying to be a better, helpful person who recognizes privilege and racism and calls it out.
Post by spinnaker5 on Dec 28, 2015 14:19:04 GMT -5
I lurk/read this board regularly, and I'm way overdue for saying thanks - not just for this particular (excellent) article but to all the regulars here who take the time to share perspectives, ask provocative questions, and pass on interesting reads. You are having a positive impact that goes far beyond what's visible in the thread replies.
Seriously though, a lot of truth in this. Uncomfortable
I like to consider myself educated and enlightened and "above" racism but yes, I wrestle with bias. It often isn't even conscious but it is there. I grew up in a white world, basically never saw a non white person as a child. Everyone was white. Now things have changed in my home country (Ireland) but growing up, I did not see ANY diversity.
Now I live in America. I have worked hard to “open my mind”. This forum helps me a lot. Yet, I live in a white world still. I work in Boston. Probably ¾ of the people I work with are white. I live in the suburbs. There are no black people on my street. At the playground it is probably ¾ white people just like my office. My kids current daycare has some Asian children but I have not seen a black child there.
None of this is on purpose. But the fact that I have just accepted this as reality is bad. The “Reality” of life in a “nice” suburban area and working as a professional woman in the city is that most people I encounter at work are white. The guys who man the elevators and the women who clean the offices and bathrooms however ARE mostly minorities. It’s just a terrible picture really. As a woman in IT, I am largely surrounded by men in my job but when there ARE women, they are usually white. So as has been said before many times it’s a double whammy for black women, cards stacked against you in every way.
It’s really awful and it does bother me. I don’t want it to be this way. I don’t actually dislike people who aren’t white. But, I do just accept it I guess. It doesn’t directly affect me in my day to day life as a privileged white woman with a good job and fair skinned children that I only have to worry the average amount about. So because it doesn’t AFFECT me, I am bothered by it, but complacent.
This is a beautifully written piece; thank you for sharing. I'll be sharing with my school's professional development group.
I too have had my mind/eyes opened in a huge way over the last 2 years about race, both in my "real" life and on here. I grew up in an incredible diverse community, but it wasn't until very very recently that the concept of institutionalized and systematic racism became clear to me (thanks to some friends of color who painstakingly walked me through it...).
I read a poem one of my students sent me yesterday that broke my heart: in it, he's talking about his experiences as a young, black male (he's 13). The last line reads, "when I was a little boy, white women used to pinch my cheeks, call me 'sweetie' and give me candy. Now, they cross the street." I need to keep hearing what people are saying; I recognize that being the spokesperson for a race or group is exhausting, but please know that I am grateful every time to hear about different experiences.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
I have a question. I want to share this on facebook but I know barely anyone will actually read it. What paragraph do you think I should put in the actual post?
Post by jojoandleo on Dec 29, 2015 12:51:59 GMT -5
Damn. That is slightly painful to REALLY read. I think it is easy sometimes as a white person to give ourselves a break. *I* am not racist. *I* dislike Trump and others who talk/think like him. *I* pay attention to black lives matter and cases like Tamir Rice. But the truth is, I am privileged. And I reap the rewards for the chance of being born white every day. I get warnings instead of tickets. I don't get stopped when entering or exiting a store. I don't have people locking their doors when I walk by.
My liberal hippy mother over Christmas made a comment about how "yeah police brutality is bad, but if he hadn't run, he wouldn't be shot." Well, it's easy as a WHITE WOMAN to say don't run. I brought up corruption among cops-like right here in Oklahoma where the guy raped 13 women. If you thought there was a chance YOU would be one of those women, would you run? It's hard to put yourself into an experience you have never had, so by the author starting with sexism, it really helped bring this all into focus. I have experienced sexism. I know what it is like to see male privilege and then have men privy to that privilege deny they are sexist. The truth is, I may never really truly "get it" as I will never truly experience racism. But I can keep trying.