Use Your White Privilege to Fight Racism
Renée Graham, Boston Globe, April 24, 2018
{snip}
When your skin is white, racism is something of a thought experiment — it’s not a daily experience of frustration, annoyance, humiliation, and fear. It’s not hard to do. Using white privilege for the greater good was on display in that Philadelphia Starbucks. Melissa DePino filmed and tweeted the video showing Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson being questioned, handcuffed, and perp-walked out of the coffee shop. DePino knew they did nothing wrong, and she verbally challenged the police.
{snip}
In a CNN essay, DePino wrote, “Things like this happen to black and brown people in this country every single day, and they talk about it, tweet about it, and write about it, but for more reasons than I can discuss intelligently in this small space, people who look like me — white people — often don’t see, hear, or believe their stories.”
If you want to be an ally, you must believe our stories.
{snip}
{snip} Racism is both emboldened and normalized; to push back is to defy and alter the status quo.
{snip}
People of color challenge racism everyday; we’ve never had a choice. {snip} That, white people, is on you — and your privilege.
Reneé Graham
