white Privilege
I found this on theInner Net!!
Something about these words that just speaks to me.
As of late, I'm changing much.
Have left theOld ways I once lived behind and now partake of Life Anew.
Somehow I wonder how I even made it this far doggedly clinging to an white man's form of Christianity called mormonism. But I did it.
And it did help me much with everything I've done and helped me be whom I am today.
I am a Man, and on my own two feet I stand.
I make my choices in Life, and I account for what I do.
I unmercifully look at myself and then at Others and do Judge by varying degrees and standards-still.
Because only in christianity does it ingrain into you / it's believers that because God is on Your side, YOU ARE RIGHT and no one else is.
I used to think that way, and did accept it as Gospel truth.
But now adays, I have to step back and look at things from a different POV / pointOf View and say, that sometimes, I was just plain out WRONG!!
Like, for instance,
If I dress up nice and hop on theBus!! into downtown Anchorage.
Half of the people around me are not dressed up Nicely, and half of them might just be total welfare leaching, hoodlum degenerates or various riff-Raff,
as that is how various people around Anchorage, whom I have overheard and even had them say to me, percieve certain nighbhorhoods and the people that live in them as being, etc.
And you get some strangers, who then will look at us people on theBus!! and they might need directions, or they'll need help, or they'll just want to talk to someone-Anyone.
Guess whom these Lost / in need of aid / lonely people talk to?!
Me.
(but only sometimes)
Because somehow they percieve me as being "successful", or as a bit better than others around me,
But if you look at me,
I'll be the first to tell you that You shouldn't pick me,
that You shouldn't judge outwardly and overlook thePerson on theInside, but too many of us do Just That!!, myself included.
I've grown up Native and I've grown up White.
I've been both, and I've been more of one Than theOther!! and vice versa throughout my Life, and due to Christianity I never really thought of what I was doing
because I thought that I was "Right". I thought that I was doing what I should have been doing all along, and I thought that I was among friends when including my former lds associates into my Life,
when including former Public Safety Officials and colleauges into my Life, and I was wrong.
When I stood on the side of theLord, sure I was right, but I have to now think about what I've done to those "sinners", to all those people that I ever stood against in the first place.
And when I stood on theGood side of Life, and had theState on my side, sure I was right, but I have to now think about what I've done to those "criminals" and Villagers-many of them just Victims in the first place,
to all those people that I ever stood against Out There While In Uniform, to include recent days before I changed my mind about a lot of things.
And this following topic I cut and pasted, is about Racism.
It's from thePerspective of a "Non-White" person. Of course, now that it's 2007 and times are a changing,
We / I see that White people are becoming theMinority!!
I hope to be around to officially see such changes totally come to Our Society as a whole, when Whites are finally broken.
When they begin to see how it feels to be discriminated against,
when they see how it feels to be harrassed, and threatened,
when they see how it truly feels to be made to feel like a 2nd class citizen.
Because these and other seemingly innocent acts I have experienced all of my Life and due to my Christianity Mindset, I never let it bother me, just overlooked things and kept going about my day,
Well, maybe it's time I stopped and took a long look at some things going on around me, in how some People treat me,
Even now, I am, for theMost part, treated respectfully by those that know me, be they White, Black, Native, Asian,
Male, female, Old and young.
And for the most part, I do deserve this Respect, as well as those People that I do In Turn give respect to-They Deserve My Respect!!
But I'm just saying, that this following Posting "Spoke to Me!!" and I had to grab it and comment upon it and post it.
Now as for this time of my life,
I think that I have to choose which Race that I will Live As for the next 40 or even the next 140yrs.
I just hope that I won't ever continue to be guilty of some of these things.
For racism, discrimination and so on, isn't just exclusive to Whites.
Granted, they are more guilty than anyone but every other Race on thePlanet also feels it and practices it one way or Another.
-----------------------------
Daily effects of white privilege
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be
neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization, " I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser' s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or
professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give
attention only to people of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
http://indianz.com/board/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28781
Something about these words that just speaks to me.
As of late, I'm changing much.
Have left theOld ways I once lived behind and now partake of Life Anew.
Somehow I wonder how I even made it this far doggedly clinging to an white man's form of Christianity called mormonism. But I did it.
And it did help me much with everything I've done and helped me be whom I am today.
I am a Man, and on my own two feet I stand.
I make my choices in Life, and I account for what I do.
I unmercifully look at myself and then at Others and do Judge by varying degrees and standards-still.
Because only in christianity does it ingrain into you / it's believers that because God is on Your side, YOU ARE RIGHT and no one else is.
I used to think that way, and did accept it as Gospel truth.
But now adays, I have to step back and look at things from a different POV / pointOf View and say, that sometimes, I was just plain out WRONG!!
Like, for instance,
If I dress up nice and hop on theBus!! into downtown Anchorage.
Half of the people around me are not dressed up Nicely, and half of them might just be total welfare leaching, hoodlum degenerates or various riff-Raff,
as that is how various people around Anchorage, whom I have overheard and even had them say to me, percieve certain nighbhorhoods and the people that live in them as being, etc.
And you get some strangers, who then will look at us people on theBus!! and they might need directions, or they'll need help, or they'll just want to talk to someone-Anyone.
Guess whom these Lost / in need of aid / lonely people talk to?!
Me.
(but only sometimes)
Because somehow they percieve me as being "successful", or as a bit better than others around me,
But if you look at me,
I'll be the first to tell you that You shouldn't pick me,
that You shouldn't judge outwardly and overlook thePerson on theInside, but too many of us do Just That!!, myself included.
I've grown up Native and I've grown up White.
I've been both, and I've been more of one Than theOther!! and vice versa throughout my Life, and due to Christianity I never really thought of what I was doing
because I thought that I was "Right". I thought that I was doing what I should have been doing all along, and I thought that I was among friends when including my former lds associates into my Life,
when including former Public Safety Officials and colleauges into my Life, and I was wrong.
When I stood on the side of theLord, sure I was right, but I have to now think about what I've done to those "sinners", to all those people that I ever stood against in the first place.
And when I stood on theGood side of Life, and had theState on my side, sure I was right, but I have to now think about what I've done to those "criminals" and Villagers-many of them just Victims in the first place,
to all those people that I ever stood against Out There While In Uniform, to include recent days before I changed my mind about a lot of things.
And this following topic I cut and pasted, is about Racism.
It's from thePerspective of a "Non-White" person. Of course, now that it's 2007 and times are a changing,
We / I see that White people are becoming theMinority!!
I hope to be around to officially see such changes totally come to Our Society as a whole, when Whites are finally broken.
When they begin to see how it feels to be discriminated against,
when they see how it feels to be harrassed, and threatened,
when they see how it truly feels to be made to feel like a 2nd class citizen.
Because these and other seemingly innocent acts I have experienced all of my Life and due to my Christianity Mindset, I never let it bother me, just overlooked things and kept going about my day,
Well, maybe it's time I stopped and took a long look at some things going on around me, in how some People treat me,
Even now, I am, for theMost part, treated respectfully by those that know me, be they White, Black, Native, Asian,
Male, female, Old and young.
And for the most part, I do deserve this Respect, as well as those People that I do In Turn give respect to-They Deserve My Respect!!
But I'm just saying, that this following Posting "Spoke to Me!!" and I had to grab it and comment upon it and post it.
Now as for this time of my life,
I think that I have to choose which Race that I will Live As for the next 40 or even the next 140yrs.
I just hope that I won't ever continue to be guilty of some of these things.
For racism, discrimination and so on, isn't just exclusive to Whites.
Granted, they are more guilty than anyone but every other Race on thePlanet also feels it and practices it one way or Another.
-----------------------------
Daily effects of white privilege
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be
neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization, " I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser' s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or
professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give
attention only to people of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
http://indianz.com/board/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28781
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