Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Even during Black History Month, they come for us even though we didn’t call them. They pop up on social media or in our class or in the breakroom at work with some little comment about how hard it is to be a straight white man in modern America. They want you to know that, nowadays, they are the real Most Oppressed Class. I mean, they don’t have their own month. Where is white history month? They don’t have their own channel like BET. They don’t have affirmative action. And there are lots of white men who are poor or who worked hard and earned everything they got, so stop playing the race card all the damn time. I’m tired, y’all, but let’s continue.
When we talk about race in mixed groups, there will often be some white man who thinks that the concept of racism in modern America is destroyed by the fact that some white people lack money and success while SO MANY Black people are wealthy and powerful. I mean, look at Obama, Oprah, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, LeBron, Rihanna, Dr. Dre … As a rule, I do not try to convince white people that racism exists. If they don’t believe that then we have nothing at all to talk about. But sometimes, when the ancestors are standing behind me, I might deign to conversate a bit, and I might come up with an analogy that could help the small white male brain understand racism because, hey, if fish don’t know what water is then we have to do something big to get white men to understand what racism is.
I used to say white privilege is like having a car when no other race gets to have one. You may be a crappy-looking car but no one else even has one. It may be hard work pouring in that gas and driving in between the lines and parallel parking can be tough — finding parking at all can be a lot of work! — so yeah, you worked…
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