For the reader that does not know this, I probably have the most viewed poem of the 21st century, save Amanda Gorman. My work has been used in college curricula worldwide and even got a nice teacher fired whose birthday is the day before this article is released (Happy Birthday, Matt Hawn, love you, friend!). Anyway, I say all of that to say that seeing that the poem is called “White Privilege,” it has understandably, yet still unreasonably, made some white people very, very upset, to the point of hallucination even.
They seem to see and hear things I did not say in order to justify their speak-to-the-manager ass anger.
As I type this, there is probably a white person angrily typing away in the comments about how I was wrong. I should get over my victim mentality, how I was the real racist/reverse racist, or how I should not speak about all white people, but also be upset that I did not include their culture in the ones I specifically called out. In the few-second clip of a three-minute poem, white people are virulently reacting to me saying these words, “we learned your French, we learned your English, we learned your Spanish, your Dutch, your Portuguese, your German, you learned our nothing; you called US stupid. That’s white privilege.” One of the most shocking interactions I had, was with a former (thank God) teacher, Hallie Bishop, whose exact words to me were, “[W]hite Americans are ultimately boiled down to their fair skin and talked to as one. [sic] Which is exactly what racism is.”
Upon further discussion with Hallie, she agreed that what I said was, in fact, historically accurate, but because I did not specify that the person was racist when I used the words “you,” and “your,” that I was, in fact, the racist.
Say word.
It’s always interesting reading comments from white women, in particular, telling me to stop living in victimhood. The demographic whose protection is the reason for weed being illegal, school segregation, the murder of Black men and boys and massacres in the Jim Crow South, and the induction of the klan could possibly muster the gall to tell someone not to be a victim. And while I hate calling them “Karens” because that’s my mother’s name, Karens are literally white women whose entire personalities are them being highly offended by other people not allowing them to get in their business. I have even heard them say that Karen is a racial slur…Imagine.
While I cannot tell another demographic to which I do not belong their experience, I simply refuse to believe that straight white men/males are hardly targeted and live a life of discomfort anywhere comparable to Black people, and that is just based on statistics alone. Back in 2018, a comedian I’ve never heard of named Josh Denny tweeted, ”’Straight White Male” has become this century’s N-Word. It’s used to offend and diminish the recipient based on assumption and bias. No difference in the usage.’” Over 15,000 quote tweets later, I wonder if he still feels the same.
In that very same thread, Josh made sure to quote doctor king, a man who was murdered because of literal racism. It’s interesting when straight white men make up 30% of the population, but 62% of Congress receive sentences that are about 20% shorter than their Black male counterparts for similar offenses. Eighty-five percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are white men, and let’s not even get into the pay gap. Being a white man is literally the easiest starting point in life, but somehow pointing out their advantages is the real racism.
Whenever I speak of racism, white people want me to say some white people in order to distinguish them from people who are more racist than they are. It’s interesting how I’ve never said all white people in my indictments against racism, but somehow, I need to say some in order to distinguish the difference. Whenever some white people speak of Black people, it is never with the use of the word some. It is never some Black people are criminals. It is never some Black people do drugs. It is never some Black people need to do better.
Additionally, racism was never based on some Black people being considered less than some white people, and it was pretty much an all-or-nothing kind of thing. The need to separate themselves from the racism Black people experience is always more important than listening to the experience and often turns into centering themselves in it instead. Black people don’t get to remove themselves from racism. It is not something we get to choose to experience. White people don’t get to choose whether they get the benefit of the doubt in most scenarios.
Whether they consider themselves racist or not, they all benefit from white supremacy.
The opposite of reverse racism would be racism, actual racism. A Black person could undoubtedly hold a position of power over a white person that may deny them money and resources, and one could argue that is racism; the difference is that is not a systemic issue. If one Black person does not offer you a job, there are many more white people in positions of power that can. There is no blanket denial of one’s abilities and prowess due to their whiteness (save maybe basketball or rapping, and the highest-selling rapper of all time is a white man.)
Whiteness is not under attack. White supremacy is, and when white people align themselves to the idea that they are superior, whether they want to admit it out loud or even to themselves, then they are destined to feel attacked by attacks on racism. They are destined to feel that their race because they feel it is tied to their superiority, is what people really hate.
They don’t know what equality feels like, but what they do know is that they don’t want it—some white people, at least.
