Lessons: Being white on St. Paddy's Day in Philly

One thing we white people don't have nearly enough of is conscious thought about what it means to be white. So whenever something emerges, it's good to read it and pass it along. And, as a white person, to deeply take in what it says. As in, "This applies directly to me."

So today's lesson comes from, Being White in Philly St. Patrick's Day Weekend by j.n. salters, a Black feminist writer. We white people have such a hard time looking at our own whiteness and associated privileges that it is no surprise this is penned by someone who is Black. Kind of like how women can turn the mirror on men to see their sexism, their privilege, etc. We have to battle it, fight the power of it, so we know it. 

In her article, she points out,

"As I walked down 15th Street in Center City this past Saturday night -- amidst drunken white girls in green mini skirts and green heels with green bows in their hair, and belligerent white boys wearing green beaded necklaces and funny-shaped glasses yelling and chasing after the girls -- I could not help but think, this is what it actually means to be white in Philadelphia...

... Seriously? You cannot be fucking serious. But, of course you're serious. You're white in Center City. As I continued to make my way down the shit show covered in shamrocks, I asked myself, what if all these people outside were black? If we are to go by recent Philadelphia policies and legislation -- many of which disproportionately target people of color (e.g., stop and frisk, "zero tolerance" policies, curfew ordinances, voter ID laws) -- I am almost certain that had these been masses of drunken black teenagers and young adults decked in matching colors, they would have been deemed gang members, looters, flash mobsters, and subsequently stopped and frisked, beaten, and/or arrested."

Go read the whole thing (link conveniently re-inserted).

If you are white, did you go out and party on St. Paddy's Day in large crowds of mostly white people? Or at some other street party in the last few zillion years? Did you for one second think about your relative safety and what she just said? Probably not. That unawareness is your/our privilege at work.

And now that you're more aware, what are you gonna do about it? (And please do think about what it means that one of the viable answers is "nothing.")