Shawna Post #Class Discussion

After today's class I left the classroom a bit bothered and uneasy. I realize that tensions got high and people were a bit emotional. To me, that is a clear sign that racism still exists. As for the debate about white privilege, I still stand by what I said in class. White privilege means so many different things, but the general term means that white people do not have to think about their race. When someone brought up the example that they did not have to think about their race even though they went to a predominantly white school, this is see as a privilege. Other black students have had to think about their race at their school, however, in some other way that privileged black student has had to think about her race. White people never have to think about their race, unless you are taking a class and are educated about white privilege think the rest of our class is. At the end of the day, no matter how privileged a person of color might be, there are still some circumstances that occur that make people of color aware of their race. I know that it is extremely hard for us to grasp that because, like we stated in class, we don't want to believe that people get privileges without deserving them. But I believe the sooner we accept that white privilege exists, the faster we can start to change it.