I'd like to start off by saying I was interested just for kicks to see how a couple of online dictionaries used privilege in a sentence. This is the first one I came across:
education is a right, not a privilege.
It almost made me spit on my computer screen, but I managed to restrain myself. I too am ashamed to say most of us white folks out there, even the ones who believe to be unbiased, are unaware that they possess unearned privilege. I too admit, with shame, I have been through some tough situations in my life, but never, even being female, have any of my difficult times directly related to these conditions.
I can relate to McIntosh and Andrea that I did not see myself as racist because of the way I was taught and rather convinced it was everyone else. I have found myself in the past asking, 'we always refer the them, who are they?' Similar to Zalika, who had her class refer directly to who 'they' are, I have in the past found myself trying to avoid 'they' and recognize 'them'. It bewildered and saddened me to see that I never thought I could be one of them. I have thought about these circumstances before, but not to the depths of imagining that I have unintentionally effected others.
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I can totally see you spitting at your screen. That's a great question, who are they? I also thought a lot about Zalika's story, about making her students name the people they were talking about. It's such a simple thing, but it's really opened my eyes to how I can dehumanize another person and make them into an object of my own disappointments.
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