Hello!

Hey White People,

I'm a 29-year-old, white, heterosexual female living in the United States of America. Ain't life grand? Like my counterpart I too have been white my whole life, but I didn't really know it until sometime in my early 20's. No I am not physically blind. I have always been able to see that my skin synthesizes less melanin than some other people's skin (see Jake's Hello post for all the science on this business). What is much more difficult to see is this thing called privilege, which having less melanin abilities, among other things, affords. Most people call this kind of privilege white privilege. To be sure there are other kinds of privilege. For example, my counterpart on this blog is a biological and self-expressed male. He has male privilege whereas I, as a biological and self-expressed female, do not. But that's another blog for another time.

My parents taught me to value everyone regardless of skin color (thanks mom and dad! no, that is not sarcasm, my parents are the bees knees). While not a bad lesson, unfortunately racism in this country is about much more than personal prejudice. It wasn't until sometime in college that that fact began to sink in and it wasn't until graduate school that I was forced to deal with it.

This bloggity blog right here is meant for White People. If you came here fore a White Supremacy blog experience, you have clicked the wrong link, my friend. This blog is for White People who want to understand more about what it means to have white privilege in this crazy racialized society in which we are living. It is not a 'celebration' of being White, nor is it a 'guilt trip', nor is it white bashing. It is a place for White People to ask other White People questions about white privilege and to examine our collective role in racism. In case you've been living under a rock, it turns out there are still some seriously racist systems at play in our society. If you're anything like me, you've been wondering what on earth to do about it.

The hope is that this will be a safe place to ask honest questions. Sometimes you might not like the answers. Sometimes we might be sarcastic or snarky, but we will try to be respectful and honest at the same time. Sometimes we won't know exactly how to answer things but we will do our best. Do you have a lot of questions right now? GOOD! Let's get started.