A lot of white people don’t like to think that we have privilege. We like to say that white privilege equals begin racist—and in a way, it is.
As a white person, I am born with privilege. All white people are. To say that we are not is as useless as denying the fact that air exists—it is ridiculous to say that it doesn’t exist, because even though we can’t see it, it is a big part of life. White people are born with privilege, and as we grow older, we learn racist behavior, from the other white people in our lives. We learn that being racist is bad, and so we love to think of ourselves as “not one of them”, not one of the racists. But here’s the thing—we don’t automatically become not racist when we think that. All white people are going to be brought up racist, and the key to not being racist is not to just say we aren’t and expect that to be true, it is to unlearn the racist behavior. We have to acknowledge that we have privilege, that we have power over other races, we have to know that there’s a reason other races cannot trust us. We have to recognize we have brought up to be racist, and we have to unlearn the behavior. I am trying my hardest too, but that doesn’t make me a good person. So many of us think we deserve a pat on the back for not being racist, which is absolutely ridiculous. We do not deserve a gold star for being friends with a black person, we do not deserve praise for not killing an unarmed teenage black boy as he walks past—because everyone should do it. It should be simple as doing anything else, it should be a naturally human thing.
So this photo goes a little bit into the topics of racism—and how white people are so focused on denying the existence of white privilege, so often focused on not saying something racist so no one will get mad instead of not saying something racist because it shouldn’t be said, that we get blinded by our own privilege, by our own skin colour. We start to whine about how “reverse racism” and “racism against white people” exists, we start getting mad and threatening black people who make one funny joke about how white people can’t dance, that we again start to make it about ourselves. Why are we so concerned about the fact that it is impossible to be racist against us? Why do we want to be oppressed so badly? It’s completely ridiculous.
So to everyone saying, “ ‘Black lives matter’? Why isn’t it ALL LIVES MATTER? :(” it is because not all lives getting killed for their skin color.
And, especially, (another phrase that was inspiration for this photo along with white privilege) “We all bleed red!!” Yes, yes, we do. We do all bleed red, but it is not whites’ blood that is lining the streets.
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