This is the difference between WHITE PRIVILEGE and BLACK REALITY.
White privilege is not that whites are automatically guaranteed to succeed or have life easy, but it means you don’t get extra obstacles gratuitously thrown in your way as you try to make it.
White privilege is not being afraid that being pulled over could get you killed.
White privilege is that white mass shooters get arrested — taken alive — but a black man obeying an order to reach for his registration and insurance gets shot; or a black medical aide lying on the ground with his hands in the air gets shot when he yells to the officer that the patient he is accompanying has a mental disability.
And yes, all lives DO matter. But all lives are not the ones that are being disproportionately killed or brutalized, and the ones who are being disproportionately killed or brutalized are the ones we need to be focusing on, to end the brutality.
It is kind of like a room full of people are all eating dinner. Everyone has been served and is enjoying their meal … except one person, who has no food.
So the one person says, “I need food.”
And everyone else says, “Everyone needs food,” and keep on eating.
Yes, it is true, everyone needs food. But we need to focus the attention on the person who does not have the food.
This is the difference between WHITE PRIVILEGE and BLACK REALITY.
White privilege is not that whites are automatically guaranteed to succeed or have life easy, but it means you don’t get extra obstacles gratuitously thrown in your way as you try to make it.
White privilege is not being afraid that being pulled over could get you killed.
White privilege is that white mass shooters get arrested — taken alive — but a black man obeying an order to reach for his registration and insurance gets shot; or a black medical aide lying on the ground with his hands in the air gets shot when he yells to the officer that the patient he is accompanying has a mental disability.
Someone says, “Black lives matter,” and someone else responds, “All lives matter.”
And yes, all lives DO matter. But all lives are not the ones that are being disproportionately killed or brutalized, and the ones who are being disproportionately killed or brutalized are the ones we need to be focusing on, to end the brutality.
It is kind of like a room full of people are all eating dinner. Everyone has been served and is enjoying their meal … except one person, who has no food.
So the one person says, “I need food.”
And everyone else says, “Everyone needs food,” and keep on eating.
Yes, it is true, everyone needs food. But we need to focus the attention on the person who does not have the food.