Hey There!

Hey White People,

I'm a 31-year-old, straight, cis male, living in America and I'm white (just like you!). I've actually been white all my life, thanks to the lack of melanin synthesis in my skin. It's a biological thing, see. If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, check this out. If you would rather not, let me simmer this into a few sentences. Skin pigmentation has to do with with how much melanin is expressed in the outer layer of our skin. Humans, across the board, have about the same number of melanocytes (the things that produce the melanin) the difference being that some people synthesize melanin more abundantly than others. Some of that is genetic, some of that is environmental, and all of that is basic science that has absolutely nothing to do with individuals being disadvantaged, disenfranchised, and dismissed in our wonderful little democratic corner of the globe, right? Well no, actually, because I'm racist.

Yes, you read that correctly. My co-blogger and friend is also racist. Confused? Angry? Perhaps a bit defensive? I can understand that reaction, our feelings are our feelings, but there's something about all of this race stuff that needs some clarification, especially among white people. There is a difference between one's prejudice or bigotry and racism. Prejudice is your opinions about others that are based on sweeping generalizations or just, like, how you feel about it, man. Racism is not that. If you're living in America (which I'm assuming about 99.9% of you reading this are) and you're white, like me, you live in a society that privileges certain gender expressions, sexual orientations, religions, language, skin color, and reproductive anatomy (among other things) through institutionalized structures and systems that are at times difficult for many of us in the majority to see and (perhaps more apt) easy for us to not have to see.

Now, I know this is where the wheels tend to come off the wagon for a lot of people. I think most white people would like to believe in an America that is built on equality and justice, we require facts and data, evidence to convince us, and I'm sure this blog will address some of that (it's not hard to find) but here's the thing. The fact that we have the time and opportunity to sit back, assess data, and come up with a reasoned logical narrative to explain the data is an excellent example of white privilege. We have the latitude, opportunity, and time to do these things. We're not living under the threat of back-breaking institutionalized poverty or the spectre of violence.

Race, in America, is complicated stuff. Hell, race anywhere in the world is complicated stuff. Most of us white people grew up in a white family, in a predominantly white neighborhood, attending a predominantly white school, you probably talked about race as much as you talked about death, just about not at all. And therein lies the giant racialized rub of life in America in 2014. The utter lack of discussion and conversation is one of the reasons we're still sitting almost squarely at step 1 dealing with racism today, it's one of the reasons we need to talk about this. Tim Wise has a wonderful F.A.Q that helps get at some of the operational definitions of this stuff and provides a framework for understanding racism. I would suggest, at least, a cursory perusal. It would be nice to have a common language to start talking about some of this stuff, the hope being that this place is one for conversation and interaction. There will undoubtedly be hurt feelings, people will come be offended and leave, I'm sure it will be tense, and I am absolutely positive these conversations are vital to efforts of reconciliation and understanding and might (dare we hope) provide a lens for us to better understand what it means to be white and privileged in these United States.