Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
You have never had to leave your house to go to school or work, and worry that the police car driving up the road is going to stop and officers come out with their hands on the handles of their guns, questioning why you're walking on the sidewalk in your neighborhood.
You have never had to be followed by a store clerk who is worried that you're going to steal something.
You've never been in an elevator and when it opened on another floor, the young family about to get in, chose to wait for another elevator instead.
That is privilege. You enjoy things that black people don't get to enjoy, simply by virtue of your skin color.
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As a poor white person growing up, coming from the wrong side of the tracks, I had all the same “privileges” as the black person. Enter a store, the security followed you pretending to check the goods. Walk on the wrong side of town, police followed you as if you were about to rob the local establishment. Boys/men thought you and your mother were “easy”. Getting stopped and questioned by local cops “just because”. Called names because you wore hand-me-downs. Yep, sure enjoyed my “white privilege”.
But as Steve said, I had the privilege of loving parents who instilled in me the right and wrong of life including being kind to those different than me.