I Have No White Privilege, And I Am Not Responsible For Racism Because…
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The meanderings of White denial and the White fragility of responsibility…
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Yes, I agree with your between the lines premise. Taking responsibility is a tough thing. I know why you don’t want to take responsibility for White privilege, and see no systemic racism. It makes sense that way. All of us have a weakness. You may have many more, it seems. However, I am hopeful you will come around, before taking this sin of omission to the grave.
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If you were soberly driving a car that hit and injured, or killed someone, but you did not “see” anything, and the only sound was a light thump like you hit a bird, you also would be innocent, right? You had no idea it was a person, and you never turned around to see what you hit because… Who would have? No one would expect us to take responsibility for it, either. We are like two peas in a pod… of white privilege denial bullshit.
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I am not rich! Therefore White privilege could never be associated with me in the 99.7% White state, county, city, or neighborhood I live in. Yes, the school I went to was all White students, but if it would have become mostly Black students, I would have stayed, and we Whites would have funded it to the hilt like we would agree to do for every school in the nation. I will also show I am not racist by transferring my kids to a school of mostly Black students tomorrow, after I buy a house in a mostly Black neighborhood. I can’t even understand why schools where predominantly Black families live have less funding than mostly White school districts. Since I am ignorant about why that is the case, how can I be racist?
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Furthermore, how could I be racist if I wasn’t around for slavery (1619–1865)? Not here for the beginning of the KKK and through Jim Crow (1866–1968). Surely not for FHA loan denials, and school and housing segregation, racist property covenants, or almost no GI Bill funding for Black service people (1945–1968). I was MIA as to refusing to allow busing and integration of schools, enabling the racist drug war, worst of mass incarceration, and abuses of prisoners at Attica and other facilities (1969– until the day after…)…
