WHAT IS WHITE PRIVILEGE?
White privilege describes the unearned advantages that are granted because of one's whiteness or ability to "pass" as white. It is important to note that white privilege is not a concept that is part of the natural order of life. In the absence of white supremacy, white privilege is meaningless.
YOU AND WHITE PRIVILEGE
I was asked the following questions:
In what ways do you hold white privilege? Make a list of the different ways you hold white privilege in your personal life.
What negative experiences has your white privilege protected you from throughout your life?
What positive experiences has your white privilege granted you throughout your life?
In what ways have you wielded your white privilege over people of color that have done harm (whether or not you intended to)?
What have you learned about your white privilege that makes you uncomfortable?
YOU AND WHITE FRAGILITY
I was asked the following questions:
How does white fragility show up during conversations about race? Do you fight, freeze or flee?
Describe your most visceral memory of experiencing white fragility. How old were you? Where were you? What was the conversation about? Why did it bring up white fragility in you? How did you feel? How do you feel now?
How have you weaponized your fragility against people of color through, for example, calling the authorities, crying or claiming you're being harmed?
How do you feel when you hear the words white people? Does it make you uncomfortable?
How has your white fragility prevented you, through fear and discomfort, from doing meaningful work around your own personal anti-racism to date?
YOU AND TONE POLICING
I was asked the following questions:
How have you used tone policing out loud to silence, shut down, or dismiss people of color? What kinds of words have you used to describe what tone a person of color should use?
What tone policing thoughts have you harbored inside when you've heard people of color talk about race or their lived experiences, even if you didn't say them out loud?
How have you derailed conversations about race by focusing on how someone said something to you rather than what they said to you? Looking back now, why do you think the tone that was used was more important to you than the content of the information being conveyed?
How often have you made your willingness to engage in antiracism work conditional on people using the "right" tone with you?
How have you discounted people of color real pain over racism because the way they talk about it doesn't fit with your world view of how people should talk?
How have you discounted BIPOC in general because of the tone they use when they talk?
YOU AND WHITE SILENCE
I was asked the following questions:
How have you stayed silent when it comes to race and racism?
What types of situations elicit the most white silence from you?
How has your silence been complicit in upholding racist behavior?
How do you benefit from white silence?
Whom in your life do you harm with your white silence?
YOU AND WHITE EXCEPTIONALISM
I was asked the following questions:
In what ways have you believed that you are exceptional, exempt, “one of the good ones,” or above the conditioning of white supremacy?
In what ways have you acted out of a sense of white exceptionalism when in racial conversations with BIPOC? (For example, when called out for unintentional racist behavior, have you tried to explain or demonstrate that you are “one of the good ones”?)
Reread the extract from Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter and think back on the topics we have covered so far in this book. How has your white exceptionalism prevented you from showing up in allyship to BIPOC?
Think back to your childhood. How did society (parents, schools, the media) teach you white exceptionalism?
If you are a parent, in what ways are you teaching your children white exceptionalism
WEEK ONE IN REVIEW
CITATIONS
My Sources
Saad, Layla F. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Sourcebooks, 2020.
Pink sign photo from: https://d24fkeqntp1r7r.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/16234503/AdobeStock_278047487-e1571269556507.jpeg
White silence photo from: https://www.afsc.org/sites/default/files/styles/maxsize/public/images/White%20silence%20is%20violence.jpg?itok=P6pQvrJd
All lives matter comic from: https://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-04-21-1461197442-3875827-alllivesmatter720-thumb.jpg