Privilege or Paranoia

    I've heard people talk a lot about things like White Privilege and Male Privilege recently. Some examples being that a white man can walk into a coffee shop and order a drink without his heart racing due to the possibility of being flagged by the white clerk or how unlike a woman, a man can walk to his car without worrying that the person following behind you a few steps back has ill intentions for you in mind.

    As a black person myself...you know what--no. I'm not humoring this. I may be damning myself to endless bombardments of criticism, but I've dealt with onslaughts of negativity my entire life, and I feel this is worth it to say otherwise.

    This is stupid. It's utterly stupid. Basing your entire life on how other people could POSSIBLY perceive your behavior is a waste of time. It's jumping to the worst-case scenario, staying there, and claiming that doing so makes you smarter than everyone else. It's also an over-exaggerated sense of self-importance to think that everyone looks down upon you and is out to get you just because you exist. Most people have better things to do than think about a total stranger.

    Do I think that every white police officer is going to shoot me if I get pulled over? Of course not. What happens is that people see a black victim and a white officer and immediately assume racist intent when other factors could be at play. We don't know. But people jump to conclusions and badmouth anyone who corrects them. It's like I mentioned before about how any interactions between a man and a woman is seen as a gender issue regardless of intent.

    I've never been pulled over myself due to having a glass foot, but I have seen other family members get pulled over before. And what happened? They calmly explained the situation, took the ticket, paid the ticket, and moved on with their lives.

    Proponents of privilege are proponents of paranoia. They want people like me constantly afraid whenever they're within two yards of a white person or a woman to be constantly afraid when she's within two yards of a man.

    Here's my point:

    One black person doesn't speak for every black person. One woman doesn't speak for every woman. One white person doesn't speak for every white person. So stop painting singular incidents over an entire group of people. Sweeping Generalizations are ill-informed and inaccurate. Yes, racism and sexism motivate horrible actions. But they are actions of individuals and should be treated as such.

    I don't have time to be afraid. I'm too busy living my life.