91Ƶ

Skip to content

EDITORIAL: It has always been 91Ƶokay to be white,91Ƶ it91Ƶs a racist way of legitimizing white privilege

It91Ƶs time to do more than just take inventory of your advantages, it91Ƶs time to use them to make change
22484610_web1_CP17825622
In this Wednesday, June 24, 2020, photograph, books are displayed, including 91ƵThe Tuskegee Airmen,91Ƶ and 91ƵWhite Fragility,91Ƶ at the Black-owned Frugal Bookstore in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Many from outside Boston have recently shopped and supported the store amid nationwide protests against racism. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A Black Press Media editorial was published Aug. 20, titled 91ƵIt91Ƶs Okay to be White,91Ƶ and I91Ƶm here to tell you that it was a punch to my biracial gut.

The editorial, which has since been deleted, legitimized white guilt, giving inappropriate praise to 91Ƶgood91Ƶ white people who are gladly riding the wave that is the genetic lottery instead of calling for actual change to Western culture, which is founded on the disadvantage of non-white folks.

The catalyst for the editorial was a Keremeos pub that has been called out for using 91ƵIt91Ƶs okay to be white91Ƶ stickers in their establishment with a not-so-subtle white supremacy hand gesture attached. (I get this gesture was created by trolls on 4-Chan, but it is still intended to hurt people, and that is not OK and not the point91Ƶ read the room.)

It is laughable that, amid protests to stop American police from gunning down Black people, whiteness is so status-quo white guilt is now also becoming as mainstream as a sticker.

The editorial has since been removed from our websites, an action swiftly called for by Black Press Media91Ƶs senior management early Friday morning. My colleague who wrote the editorial is kind, hilarious and a good journalist.

Her intentions were good.

But as I write that, I can91Ƶt help but feel the need to scream that publishing 91Ƶgood intentions91Ƶ is the definition of white privilege.

Unsurprisingly, the editorial was called out loudest by white allies 91Ƶ or at least that91Ƶs what it feels like on social media 91Ƶ undoubtedly because they are newest to the world of racism (welcome, by the way). Meanwhile, myself and a few of my fellow non-white colleagues took a deep breath, felt a familiar pain and spent the evening trying to not internalize.

The truth is, it is OK to be white 91Ƶ in fact, by all standards it is great. How could it not be when from birth your dreams are rarely met with obstacles you cannot control and you don91Ƶt have the responsibility of constantly reminding the rest of the world that your voice and talents and goodness exist, that your hurt 91Ƶ again, which is for no fault of your own 91Ƶ matters.

Being white means you make a dollar for every , according to Statistics Canada data.

It means you are less likely to be stopped by police , or , according to data obtained from two separate freedom of information requests

It means you have never been called the N-word, squ**, or other derogatory words 91Ƶ all which make 91Ƶwhite trash91Ƶ and 91Ƶhick91Ƶ feel like playground speak.

It means you have never randomly been told to , even though you were born here.

It means you have likely never been for simply speaking with your friends.

It means you are likelier to see a street on (according to Statistics Canada Road Network Files) than have a highway named after the ongoing .

It means that being able to will bring you accolades instead of rejections by prospected employers.

It means you91Ƶll have health conditions diagnosed sooner by doctors because their years of training only in how to spot symptoms on pale and pink skin.

It means no medical professionals have and substance use because of intergenerational trauma due to residential schools.

It means you don91Ƶt have a TV channel dedicated to your skin colour and culture because every channel

It means when you show your proudness of being white it91Ƶs defended as patriotic and harmless, while Black people demanding basic respect and recognition of their existence is a dangerous protest.

It means you are likelier, in Canada, to live , according to 2016 Statistics Canada data.

It isn91Ƶt just OK to be white 91Ƶ white people have ensured it is fantastic, a privilege, to be white before anyone else had the chance to decide otherwise.

I can hear the frantic typing of shook-up white people right now. How dare you try to tell me what it is like to be white?

Listen. This doesn91Ƶt mean you haven91Ƶt faced hardship. White people still live in poverty, suffer from mental or physical illnesses and disabilities, and are targeted with sexism and sexual harassment.

I91Ƶm not saying white people have every 91Ƶadvance to Go and collect $20091Ƶ or 91Ƶget out of jail free91Ƶ card in this life 91Ƶ , a social theory coined by Black sociologist Kimberlé Crenshaw, accounts for all of that.

In simple terms, intersectionalism explains why white, straight, able-bodied men typically have the most opportunity, wealth and social power while Black women represent the other side or the spectrum and hold the least 91Ƶ if any 91Ƶ of all those advantages.

In between those two polarizing life situations include queer white men, men with disabilities, white women, queer women, others who are LGBTQ2+, who are biracial 91Ƶ like me with my half-white, half-east-Indian olive skintone 91Ƶ Black men, and Indigenous folks.

But if you are white, relatively healthy and grew up in a middle-class functioning family, you hold most of the life chips and your lack of success is not because of lack of opportunity.

To quote Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility, it takes 91Ƶmajor effort91Ƶ to get whites to simply acknowledge that being white gives them advantages.

What I91Ƶm learning is it clearly takes even more work to get whites to take inventory of their world and use those advantages to get rid of toxic and deadly systemic oppression from which they directly benefit.

You may not be that first group of settlers who colonized and assimilated this country, but those moments in history sure made life a hell of a lot easier for you.

So with all that extra time to live compared to whose were dealt the short end of the melanin stick, what are you going to do?

91ƵStopping our racist patterns must be more important than working to convince others that we don91Ƶt have them,91Ƶ says DiAngelo. 91ƵWe do have them, and people of colour already know we have them; our efforts to prove otherwise are not convincing. An honest accounting of these patterns is no small task given the power of white fragility and white solidarity, but it is necessary.91Ƶ

Here91Ƶs a pro-tip: To continue living how you have and not use your naturally gifted power to make change is not enough. And if I have anything to say about it, that91Ƶs going to start right here at Black Press Media.

Ashley Wadhwani is the digital content editor for Black Press Media.



About the Author: Ashley Wadhwani-Smith

I began my journalistic journey at Black Press Media as a community reporter in my hometown of Maple Ridge, B.C.
Read more



(or

91Ƶ

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }