There’s been an interesting evolution in the DL comment section. I wanted to give my take on it.
Whenever the subjects of race, women’s issues, religion (mostly concerning Muslims), LGBT, etc. come up and white privilege is pointed out we hear white people quickly saying “not all white people” and then sharing their reasons as to why they are the exceptions to whatever is being discussed. This derails the conversation, moving it away from whatever social issue is being discussed and putting the focus on white people’s concerns. I have lost count on the number of posts on DL where this has happened, and I’d like to figure out how we can stop doing this.
I get that some progressive white people aren’t happy with this turn of events. What I also get is this: Yes, all white people. Please notice the word “all”. I am including myself. I am a work in progress on these issues. I have learned a lot, mostly by listening to non-white, non-straight, non-Christian, non-male people, but I have a long way to go. It’s a learning process, mainly because I actually have to learn about experiences I not only never had to face, but never even knew existed. So yeah, I’m kinda big on the listening and learning before speaking technique.
But here’s what I noticed. White people are getting upset at being lumped into a group. I hear that we don’t know their personal experiences or discount their feelings or silence their voices or judge them not as individuals, and I’m beginning to see this outcry as an opportunity to learn something.
If we (white people) are upset/annoyed/exasperated/angry/defensive whenever white people, or white men, are called out as a group then, perhaps, we should ask ourselves how we would handle this situation if we had to deal with it every single day in every single aspect of our lives? Because we really aren’t handling this well given the comments here and elsewhere. We (general “we”) are asking for consideration that we don’t afford to other groups.
If we feel unfairly judged in these discussions on social issues because of our race, surely we can extend that feeling to other groups and understand why people who aren’t white are upset/annoyed/exasperated/angry/defensive with the very same behavior that makes us upset, annoyed, exasperated, angry and defensive? See how that could work?
No, we white people will never personally “get” the black and brown experience, being Muslim, LGBT, or a woman (if you’re a man), but we should be able to take our feelings of being unfairly judged as a monolithic group and afford the same consideration to other groups. Believe it, or not, we are not experts on everything.