Author: jazcaball

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cocoanobutter:

Here’s a lil cute 3 min video for you white folk on how white privilege is real, and how you can use it for good 🙂

“My sister-in-law, who’s half black half white, but looks white. Blue eyes, whiter than most white folks. Very white. Uh, she and I you know, we kind of grew up together, we raised our children together, so they’re first cousins, and we you know, it’s wonderful- very very multicultural family. 

So we’re going into Safeway one day. And Kathleen, my sister-in-law, is in front of me. And she’s uh, you know, writing a check for groceries. And my daughter who at the time was 10 years old was standing with me, and I was directly behind her, getting ready to get my groceries. So Kathleen comes up, and the checker, who’s a strawberry blonde, um freckled, very delightful, warm um…. you know, the checker, this young woman. she’s talking to Kathleen, [cheery voice] ‘Hey how you doing? Isn’t it a nice day today?’ you know they’re just chatting up, so Kathleen writes her check and she steps to the side with her groceries, cause she’s waiting for me. Of course again, Kathleen looks white, right?

So I come up. No conversation, she looks up at me, absolutely no.. just little chatter, and I write my check. My daughter however, is 10, notices immediately the difference in how she responds to me. So I write my check, and she goes [stern voice] ‘I’m gonna need two pieces of ID.’ At which point my daughter looks at me, and she gets very very embarrassed, and tears are kind of coming up in her eyes, like ‘mommy, you’re not gonna let her do this, why is she doing this to us?’ right?

So I’m trying to figure out what I should do. Cause behind me are two elderly white women. [chuckles] Right? So I’m thinking ‘so then I become the ‘angry black woman’ [chuckles] right? And they’re gonna be- I’m just trying to second guess all the drama. So then I just give her the two pieces of ID, I said you know some things you just gotta choose your battles, right? 

And then it gets worse. She pulls out the ‘bad check’ book. [laughs] Right? So this is the book that shows people who have written bad checks. So she starts searching for my licence in the bad checks. At which point, it’s just out of control now.

Just as I’m standing there, um, trying to decide what to do, and it’s really, deeply humiliating, now my daughters in- full blown emotionally upset- who’s 10. My sister-in-law walks back over. and she steps in and she says ‘Excuse me. Why are you doing this?’ and the checker goes [defensively] ‘Well what- [stutters] what do you mean?’ ‘Why are you taking her through all these changes? Why are you doing that?’ She goes ‘Well this is our policy!’ She goes ‘No it’s not your policy, because you didn’t do that with me.’ [dismissively] ‘Oh, well I know you, you’ve been-’ She goes ‘No no, she’s been here for years, I’ve only lived here for three months.’

And so at this point the two white elderly ladies go [disgusted scoff; slightly southern, white lady voice] ‘I can’t believe what this checker is doing with this woman, it is totally unacceptable!’ At which point, the manager walks over! And so the manager walks over and says ‘Is there a problem here?’ and then again my sister-in-law responds, she says ‘Yes, there is a problem here. Here’s what happened.’

So you see, she used her white privilege. And even though Kathleen is half black half white, she recognizes what that means. And she made the statement, she pointed out the injustice, and she as a result of that one act influenced everyone in that space. But what would have happened- I can’t know for certain- had the black woman said ‘This is unfair! Why are you doing this to me?’ Would it have had the same impact? But Kathleen knew that she walked through the world differently than I did. She used her white privilege to educate, and to make right a situation that was wrong. That’s what you can do. Every single day.”

@ptsdven