What We Know About White People - Privilege, Power and Integration
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Racialized people know white people so well because of their experience of looking in on whiteness from a non-white perspective. They know what it is like not to have the privilege of whiteness therefore they are the first people to take notice of it and point it out. White people who have been living with this privilege are oblivious to it and do not have the necessary skills to examine or critique it. Whiteness is invisible to those who have it and therefore only those outside its bounds can examine it. Knowing what it is like not living with white privilege makes one acutely aware of what this privilege entails and how to become more mindful of it. This is why James Baldwin suggests that we accept white people with love even if they don’t do the same for us - it is because of their ignorance and obliviousness to their own positionality in the world that they act in unconsciously racist ways. By approaching them with love and calling them in instead of calling out we can enlighten them about their privilege so that they understand its extent and follow up by living consciously and trying to use that power to dismantle the systems that unfairly favour them. White people are not free living under White supremacy because their privilege is afforded to them only through the oppression of people of colour and because they choose to live in denial about the reality of the world. When we talk about integration we say we want to make White people aware of themselves and their privilege as they are, to cease fleeing reality and to actively work to change it. This is the love we must offer White people; love and understanding so that they might learn of their own privilege and use it for good.