Sometimes you have to laugh and smile and shake your head all at the same time.
In a previous post, I pointed out the hypocrisy surrounding how racism and white privilege influence the ways that the media frames news events as highlighted by the "Pumpkin fest" riot in Keene, New Hampshire.
As we all know, it is only black people who "riot"...white folks are just overly enthusiastic partiers who are easily seduced by the call to obnoxious revelry.
In CNN's story about the Keene Pumpkin fest riots, a white student was interviewed about their experience in the pumpkin white privilege mayhem.
He shared how:
Steven French, 18, who was visiting from Haverhill, Massachusetts, described the chaotic scene to the local paper, The Keene Sentinel, as "wicked."
"It's just like a rush. You're revolting from the cops," he told the paper Saturday night. "It's a blast to do things that you're not supposed to do."
Privilege consists of taken for granted assumptions about one's life opportunities and chances. Fish likely do not think much about water while they are in it; white folks do not likely think much about white privilege unless their unearned advantages are perceived as being threatened or challenged.
If this open letter is one of the best explanations for white entitlement and white privilege I have ever read, Stephen French's joy at defying the police because he knows that there will likely be no repercussions is one of the most honest statements of white entitlement which I have ever read.
Black men are shot dead by the police for walking down the street or daring to buy a toy pellet gun at a store. White men can walk around with guns in plain sight, attempt to provoke the police and other authorities into violence with no consequences, and brag to the news media about the fun that is "revolting from the police".
My man Louis CK got it right. Who wouldn't want to be white and male in America?
And as someone who was racially profiled and almost arrested for sitting in public and feeding the birds a few summers ago, I was hoping that some of my white brothers and sisters can share what the White Privilege immunity shield actually feels like to wear? Heavy? Light? Invisible comfort like an air sole shoe insert?
