At the Intersection of White & Privilege

The last couple weeks have been difficult for everyone to process. We’ve been dealing with unprecedented changes in our social behaviors with stay at home orders and navigating the changes at orders are lifted. Then George Floyd was murdered on video and for a small moment the world was united in outrage; resparking an international conversation on privilege.

This conversation struck a nerve and forced me to think about what privilege truly means in the current age. It no longer only relates to economic status and our thinking needs to expand beyond boiled down definitions.

I’ve struggled most of the week trying to find the most accessible definition of intersectional privilege. I’ve scrambled my brain and consulted fellow writers for great, home run analogies and in the end they all fall short; either too cliche or cheapened the concept. Sometimes the best writing device is restraint.

Intersectional privilege demonstrates we have all have varying degrees of privilege based on a multitude of factors. Recently, the quiz ” How Privileged Are You?” from Buzzfeed has regained traction. The original publish date is April 10, 2014 and six years later it is more relevant than ever. I know Buzzfeed is not always the best source for reliable content and many of use it as a time-waster; however, this quiz showcases the extensiveness of intersectional privilege. If you have not taken it, I highly reccommend that you do. It sheds a lot light on the different factors one should consider for intersectional privilege.

White privilege is the unique luxury passively discussing whether or not we are ‘actually‘ privileged. If you think about any hardship you had to endure in your life, being black would have made much more difficult to overcome because of instutionalized & systemic racism.

When we as humans are presented with new information, challenging our belief system we instinctively react defensively. Our gut instinct is to protect what we believe to be ours because change and challenges are hard; especially if you are someone who struggled your whole life.

Confronting your own privilege can be difficult because you have to examine every piece of your life and think about the ways it could have been harder for someone else because of something that was different. It’s scary because you know how hard it was for you and fathoming more difficulty is uncomfortable.

We are witnessing history unfold before our eyes. We have opportunity to change the way water flows. We have to shed our fear of discomfort and do what is right for the marginalized, specifically the Black Community.

The post may feel clunky and not nearly as poignant as my other commentary. It’s a difficult topic to write clearly on when you have the advantage of taking a bird’s eye view of the problem. Saying I empathize with the Black Community is a slap in the face to them, despite having handled my own challenges.

Instead, I stand in solidarity. I will use my privilege to try and educate others that privilege is more than the wealth you’ve accumulated. It’s about opportunity and experience.

I want us to get it right this time. Where do you want to stand?