I was waiting in line to get into a store when it opens. There's always a line and I was second in line, arriving 25 minutes before opening. The person in front and the two after me were women of color. The first woman in line had been waiting for over an hour.
About ten minutes before opening, two middle-aged women ignored the line, which had about a dozen people at that point, and created their own line-- standing in front of the door. I don't like line cutters. So I told them there's a line. One replied, "we're only going in to get through the store to the mall."
"The guard will send you to the end of the line when the store opens," I admonished.
"We're not going in to buy," one replied.
I shrugged my shoulders and made a face, saying, "Usually, by the time they open, the line is around the corner."
They moved to the back of the then short line, behind maybe ten people. ( By the time the store opened, I was proved right. The line was around the corner-- over 50 people.
After they did, one of the women of color thanked me, saying that she couldn't have done that without getting flack or even in trouble.
I paused, thought, then said, "Happy to use my white privilege."
It took me that moment to realize that such a thing would be an example of white privilege. But she was right.
It's not like I am not aware of my white privilege. I am aware of it when I speed up, five or seven miles over the speed limit and pass people of color going exactly the speed limit. My risk is so much less.
Doing my new business, buying liquidation items and reselling them has opened a new world to me, meeting so many more people-- fellow shoppers and the employees of the stores I go to quite regularly. Drop me an email if you want to know my Ebay and Facebook Marketplace links. rob at opednews.com
Bottom-line. white people have incredible privilege that people of color, people who are otherized, do not have, in more ways than we can imagine.
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