5d • Whiteness
White Privilege Question from Chamieka
White folks, I’m stumped. Can you help me out?
Something I've noticed after years of being fully invested in this work is that a lot of white folks are self-aware. They know when they're operating from privilege. They can name it, dissect it, write beautifully about it. And then they do the thing anyway.
"I understand it's a privilege to..." Okay. You understand it. But what's the point of naming your privilege if you're still leveraging it for your own benefit at every turn? That's not humility, that's confession without repentance. It's the same as saying "I know this system harms people" while still cashing in on it because it's easier. Or saying "I know it's a privilege to do this" and doing it anyway because you can.
Awareness without accountability is a performance. It's a way to soothe your own guilt without ever changing your behavior.
I saw someone post recently about how they moved out of the United States because things are "so bad here." They wrote about how aware they are that leaving is a privilege, but they left anyway. That's the part I can't wrap my head around. If you know it's a privilege to leave, and you claim to be invested in anti-racism, why not stay and fight alongside the people who can't?
It's like watching a house on fire and saying "wow, this is terrible, I understand it's a privilege to have an escape route" and then walking out the door while the rest of us are trapped inside.
At some point, acknowledging something without acting on it becomes a shield. A way to keep your hands clean while the rest of us are covered in ash. You don't get credit for noticing your privilege if you refuse to disrupt it. You can't hold awareness in one hand and avoidance in the other and call that growth. That's self-preservation wearing progress as a costume.
If you know better and keep doing the same thing, you're not doing the work. You're narrating it from a safe distance.
So I’ll ask you straight up: what does accountability actually look like for you? Not the version you’d give in a workshop. In your actual, everyday life. What are you doing with your awareness, because naming your privilege isn’t enough. You get to opt out of this whenever you want, and you know it. That’s the whole problem. The real work starts when you decide to use it differently, even when nobody’s watching and even when you could just walk away.
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White Privilege Question from Chamieka
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