Reply #35: Bingo! I read an article on alternet.org a few years ago that [View All]

[liberalhistorian]

really hit it right on the nail. It was from a white author who specialized in writing on racism (Tim something, can't remember the last name). He said that whites are like fish swimming in water, with the water representing the privilege we enjoy just by virtue of being white, regardless of our class or socioeconomic status. Just like fish don't even pay attention to the water and it's just always there for them, so whites don't even pay attention to or even realize the privilege we enjoy in this society just by virtue of being white.

That really hit home with me when I'd go out to lunch with a co-worker at a former workplace. She was half-black, half-cherokee, and the difference in attitude and treatment I experienced when I was alone or with white friends and family as opposed to when I was with her was unbelievable. Sure, I knew in the abstract that racism and bigotry were more than alive and well, especially in the area where we worked. But I was white, so that knowledge stayed in the abstract. Until I was with her.

I'd experienced something similar when I was much younger, when my mom would bring her black co-workers she was friends with over for dinner or invite them to holiday picnics we had, things like that (she taught at a predominantly black school and was one of the few whites who worked there). We would hear snide comments from neighbors about having "those people" over and shit like that. Which, frankly, I didn't really understand at the time.