White Privilege Alert: 28 Incredible Ways White Privilege Goes Unnoticed

You don’t see in color.

This in itself is a white privilege. Everybody else has to deal with and think about race every minute of their lives. You blinding yourself to racial issues helps no one. Just because you choose not to see something, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

You feel uncomfortable during discussions about race.

You shouldn’t feel uncomfortable as soon as race is mentioned. If you do, you’re more likely to avoid talking about it to avoid the discomfort. Conversations about race should be welcomed with open arms.

You think we live in a post-racial society.

We don’t. There are still racists everywhere among us, and they need to be weeded out.

You think Cultural Appropriation isn’t an actual thing.

It does actually exist and it happens all the time. Yoga, Rock music and dreadlocks are great examples.

You’ve ever said anything like “Why do minorities always make it about race.”

It’s “always about race” because race is an important issue that needs to be discussed and not swept under the rug.

You don’t notice the fact that roughly 75 percent of characters in movies are white with token minority characters thrown in for equality’s sake.

Think back to the last movie you watched. Now count how many minority characters you recall seeing in leading roles. I’ll wait.

You think rap music is the reason why the “n-word” is in use.

Rap music must have been amazing in the 1800s then, right?

You think there’s nothing wrong with using the “n-word” casually.

There’s a lot wrong with it. Just because “they do it all the time” doesn’t mean you should.

You’d never think twice about getting piercings/tattoos/dreadlocks for fear of not getting a job.

You think it would have been cool to live in the 1950’s.

Minorities don’t get to be able to dream about going on dates at halcyon diners and going to drive-thru cinemas. The 50s was a time of living hell for minorities.

You Say things like “All Lives Matter” as a response to “Black Lives Matter.”

Just no. We understand that all lives do matter, but “Black Lives Matter” is to highlight a fact that clearly not everyone gets. That black lives indeed, do matter. You don’t go to a fundraiser for cancer saying “Hey wait a minute, cancer’s not the only disease that matters. All diseases matter too!”

You believe “if black men pulled their pants up and stopped wearing hoods at night, the police would leave them alone.”

This is one of the biggest myths ever. Was Eric Garner wearing a hood? Did Walter Scott have his pants too low? And even if they were wearing hoods at night and wearing their pants low, does that mean they deserved to be harassed and eventually killed by the police?

Your first reaction to Black History Month is “Well, why isn’t there a White History Month?”

Your question should be: “Why is there black history month? How and why can black history be summarized and allocated to just 28 days of the year?”

You think institutionalized and systemic racism is a myth.

The facts prove it isn’t. In schools, Black and Hispanic kids make up over 60 percent of referrals to the police from school. In the working environment, people with “black sounding” names need to send out 50 percent more applications than people with “white sounding” names to get a call back. On the roads: In New Jersey, blacks make up 15 percent of the population, yet constitute 40 percent of traffic stops and 73 percent of arrests. The list of facts goes on and on and on. Yet white people break traffic laws just as much as black people. Even in the courts, 77 percent of executions are for an individual who killed a white person, whereas 13 percent of executions count for an individual who has killed a black person. The poison that is racism has seeped into the very institutions that uphold this country, and it is not absolutely not a myth.

You’ve never been offended when people are surprised that you “speak really well.”

It really does get irritating when countless people say “oh you speak really well!” as if it’s some sort of surprise. Is it that shocking to find a black male who speaks how everybody should?

You’ve been able to wear what you like and act how you like without ever thinking about people labeling you as a “thug” or a “gangster.”

Snapbacks, hoodies, gold chains, high sneakers, you name it. When a black person wears such things, they’re a thug/gangster. When a white person does it they’re “cool and edgy.”

You’ve been able to speak freely without fear of anyone using your words to represent your entire race.

When one minority person says or does something bad, why does that reflect badly on his/her entire race? Why can’t it just reflect badly on him/her as an individual?

You assume that the only and sole factor for people getting jobs is hard work and perseverance.

If that’s your first assumption, then you really are unaware of your own white privilege. In 2013, unemployment of recent black college graduates was at almost double the amount of ALL other recent college graduates.

To you, someone being followed around a store by the security guard is genuinely because they’re a potential threat.

Not because they have darker skin, and not because the security guard may have prejudices against certain types of people.

You don’t question why when a white person shoots up a public place, no one smears his/her name with the word “terrorist.”

The Black Church Shooter, Dylan Roof. The Movie Theater Shooter, James Holmes. The Sandy Hook Shooter, Adam Lanza. All of these guys are shooters, none of them are terrorists. Could it possibly have something to do with them being white? If you don’t think so, then your white privilege is blinding you.

You’ve never thought about intentionally behaving differently to avoid being stereotyped.

Minorities have to watch how they talk and behave, just in case they’re stereotyped. “You only like watermelon so much because you’re black!” Or maybe I just really like watermelon because it tastes good? “You’ve got an attitude problem, typical Latina!” Maybe the “attitude” comes from silly stereotypes like this?

You don’t think it’s weird how your minority friend gets stopped and frisked/pulled over a disproportionate amount of times to you.

In New York, from 2002-2011 blacks and Latinos made up close to 90 percent of all stop and frisks by law enforcement. At this point your white privilege may start talking. Your white privilege may be saying to you “Well, they probably make up the majority of the population in New York, so it makes sense that their numbers would be way higher” Wrong. In Park Slope, New York, 24 percent of the population is black or Latino, yet they still constitute almost 80 percent of all stop and frisks.

You say things like “Slavery was a long time ago. Get over it.”

We shouldn’t get over the Holocaust or 9/11, right? We should never forget, right? So why should we get over slavery?

You’ve never stopped to wonder why band-aids match your skin color and no one else’s.

You’ve never wondered why there is an actual color called “nude.”

Nude only works for a certain skin colour. You know the one I’m talking about.

You think White Privilege doesn’t exist.

But Louis C.K believes it exists, and he’s white too!

You think the term “White Privilege” is used as an excuse by minorities.

It’s not an excuse. Generally, white people are more likely to be born with a leg up than most. Whites are five times more likely to have some sort of inheritance, and it’s value is usually 10 times that of what black people get.

You use the excuse that “some blacks are richer than whites” to debunk the “myth” of White Privilege.

Let me direct you to this two-minute clip of a Chris Rock stand-up to respond to that.

http://https://youtu.be/24PcF7LDQ7M

Whether you admit it or not, white privilege is a real thing. It’s not some made-up concept used by minorities as an excuse as to why they’re behind whites economically in society. There are stats and facts to prove that white people do have a head-start in life. But, the acknowledgement of white privilege isn’t used to bring on white guilt, but rather to get people talking and to point us in the direction of equality for all.

Featured image via John Duffy via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.