Make a difference

“All men are created equal” and “with liberty and justice for all” are fundamental American beliefs. Why then are we still struggling with the definition of “all”? While I may not quite understand what it’s like not to be white, I do find it frustrating when a member of the privileged group believes injustice doesn’t exist just because they can’t or don’t want to see it.

White privilege means as a white person, you are the norm. You are the standard against which everything and everyone is measured. Your kind of hair is normal hair; the way you speak is the normal way to speak; your skin is “flesh-colored”; your clothing style is the current style; your values are normal values; and you are viewed as being more honest and trustworthy than other groups, whether or not you have earned it.

But white privilege doesn’t imply that white people haven’t struggled, just that our challenges aren’t related to the color of our skin. Many of us grew up blind to its existence and are still in denial. It has taken the revival of the civil rights movement through the Black Lives Matter protests to bring it to center stage.

White people, and the Black privileged people also, must get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations, and not shying away from topics like race, and its inherent inequalities and injustices. Then we must figure out how each of us can make a difference. And, it’s not a one-anddone conversation. It’s taken us 400 years to get to this point.

Tazewell Hubard, Norfolk