As a white person, growing up in a mainly white neighborhood, I was never really aware of my own privilege until I went to university and read about different perspectives. Here are a few things I came to understand about myself:

• Because my name sounds caucasian, I am probably more likely to not have any prejudices against me when applying for a job. There is a lot more discussion that could be had based on prejudices in the workplace, but I won’t get into that.
• When I am pulled over by a police officer, I am never afraid of any movement I could make that would get me into trouble. Especially in light of recent news, we have seen a lot of assumptions of black people that have resulted in unprecedented violence.
  • For example, due to previous incidents, young black people have been taught to consider their movement when being pulled over as to not to illicit a use of force.
• People automatically assume that I speak English instead of a different language because I am white.

Of course, there are many other privileges that I have, but these are just a few that come to mind.

But even after I understood what advantages I had in our society just because of the color of my skin, I was still unsure of what to do in the face of social injustices against other people of color. Because I am only one person, it would be easy to just shrug it off and go about my daily life. But even by doing that, I would be able to go about the ‘daily life’ that was afforded to me because of my privilege. I would be able to live ‘normally’ because the same injustices are not happening to me due to the color of my skin.

But by saying nothing, it would indicate that I agree with the social injustices that are happening around me. Something small, although it may be hard to do, is to speak up against comments that are racist or that promote stereotypes. Even if they are your own family members, it’s important to say what you believe. You don’t have to have a debate. All you need to say is “I don’t agree with the comment you just made. Please don’t say that about [these people] because it is upsetting to me.”

I know that this does not solve the system issue, but there are also other things you can do. Participating in peaceful protests is an example. Another is listening to the concerns of people of color. I will never be able to understand fully what other people have experienced, so it is not my place to speak for them. In our society, voices are too often silenced in favor of people in power, who are most often white. It’s time to let people speak for themselves and be heard.

One of the most important things we are all capable of doing is voting for political leaders that would have the power and the will to fight our government to make our society better for ALL people instead of those who have benefitted from the system.

If you are interested, I read this book and learned a lot about how race is seen in our society and how it relates to education and the work place. The author also gives the readers ways to bring up conversations about race that I found to be helpful.