For The Record, White Privilege Doesn’t Mean you Had it Easy

You can be poor AND have white privilege

Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

So you’ve opened yet another article on white privilege, whilst seemingly thinking it doesn’t exist. You feel uncomfortable and perhaps angry that you are yet again reminded of this privilege, but you cannot see it.

You are getting annoyed that people are calling you out on your whiteness because well you didn’t choose to be white, right?

Now, imagine, how frustrated and uncomfortable BIPOC people feel when we are reminded of this. All. The. Time. Imagine our discomfort when someone crosses the street when they see us? Imagine our discomfort when we are told to “go back to your country”. Imagine our discomfort when someone says “you probably got the job because you’re Black/Brown”.

What exactly is white privilege?

Dr Remi Joseph-Sailsbury, states that “white privilege refers to the ways in which people racialised as white experience advantages over non-white people. These privileges are not random but are the consequences of the systemic white supremacy that underpins our society”.

Privilege feels like a loaded term, right? It can feel like an attack. As if it’s saying you have a perfect life and you have had no struggle. But…