If You Are a White Person...
... And if a traffic cop pulls you over or if the IRS audits your tax return, you can be sure you have not been singled out because of your race.
... And if you declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there is not a racial issue at hand, your race will lend you more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
... And if you have low credibility as a leader, you can be sure that your race will not be blamed.
... And if you should need to move, you can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which you can afford and in which you would want to live.
... And if you sit at the defendant’s table in court with a person of another race, you can be assured that someone will mistake you for the lawyer (unless you already are a lawyer).
... And if your day, week, or year is going badly, you need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
... When you are told about your national heritage or about "civilization," you are shown that people of your color made it what it is.
... Whether you use checks, credit cards, or cash, you can count on your skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
... You are never asked to speak for all the people of your racial group.
... You are not made acutely aware that your shape, bearing, or body odor will be taken as a reflection on your race.
... You can arrange to protect your children most of the time from people who might not like them.
... You can arrange your activities so that you will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to your race.
... You can avoid spending time with people whom you were trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust you or your kind.
... You can be casual about whether to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
... You can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on your entire race.
... You can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with you and advise you about your next steps, professionally.
... You can be pretty sure of having your voice heard in a group in which you are the only member of your race.
... You can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize yours.
... You can be pretty sure that if you argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost you heavily within your present setting, even if your colleagues disagree with you.
... You can be pretty sure that if you ask to talk to the "person in charge", you will be facing a person of your race.
... You can be pretty sure that your children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; your chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
... You can be pretty sure that your neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to you.
... You can be sure that if you need legal or medical help, your race will not work against you.
... You can be sure that your children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
... You can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them closely match your skin.
... You can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of your race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places you have chosen.
... You can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, you can find ways to be protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
... You can criticize your government and talk about how much you fear its policies and behavior without being a cultural outsider.
... You can do well in a challenging situation without being called "A credit to your race".
... You can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of your race.
... You can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of your race.
... You can expect figurative language and imagery in all the arts to testify to experiences of your race.
... You can go home from most meetings of organizations you belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
... You can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of your race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with your cultural traditions, or into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut your hair.
... You can go shopping alone most of the time, well assured that you will not be followed or harassed by store employees or security people.
... You can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in your culture any penalty for such oblivion.
... You can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting your race on trial.
... You can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of your race.
... You can take a job with an Affirmative Action employer without having your co-workers on the job suspect that you got it because of your race.
... You can talk with your mouth full and not have people put this down to your color.
... You can think over many options, social, political, imaginative, or professional, without asking whether a person of your race would be accepted or allowed to do what you want to do.
... You can travel alone or with your spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with you.
... You can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of your race widely represented.
... You can worry about racism without being perceived as self-interested or self-seeking.
... You can, if you wish, arrange to be in the company of people of your race most of the time.
... You do not have to educate your children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
... You have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of your household.
... You will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
... Your children are given texts and classes which implicitly support your kind of family unit and do not turn them against your choice of domestic partnership.
... Your culture gives you little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
Last edited by Fnord on 19 Feb 2021, 12:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
18 Feb 2021, 11:44 pm
