Wednesday, August 19, 2015

White privilege 101


I was a shop steward for many years in a very diversified workplace. We fought hard battles in that place for our rights, against discrimination and for more control over our worklives. As always, racism is an issue in our society.

I get repeated lessons in how to deal with racism from these liberal type websites.  There was one that’s applicable to me that I saw tonight.  The author, who had some sort of diploma, made it clear that as a white person in an interracial relationship it is my obligation to recognize my white privilege and be willing to tell my wife I recognize it and be willing to talk about it no matter how uncomfortable. You can go to college to learn how to teach people to do this.

I forgot to do it as first and we’d gotten 15 minutes in to Perry Mason before I remembered. “Oh. Jo, I wanted to tell you that I recognize my white privilege.”, I said. At this time of night we tend to just zone out on the couch and she had her legs resting on my lap, I noticed she was breathing but had she heard me?

Maybe she hadn’t.  “Babe, I just want you to know that I recognize my white privilege”, I said again with a little more expression this time.

“Massage my ankles.” she said.

RM

2 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL!

Richard Mellor said...

I was at a gathering earlier with a bunch of my old workmates. They all asked me if I had recognized my white privilege yet. It is important to do this because the liberal website AlterNet and shitloads of lefty liberals on FB are experts in this, know a lot about it, so do a lot of professors; it's called sociology.

I read a real long piece about how to deal with what they call "the race" issue and about how to act in interracial relationships, how the "white" member of that relationship should act of course. That the "race" issue is a conscious tactic to divide and weaken worker unity was never mentioned nor was capitalism nor was there any mention of class. I once told someone I was in a "mixed" marriage and they asked what race my partner was. "She's from the middle class" I told them. They looked stunned. "What on earth is he talking about" they were saying to themselves.