This is just a quick additional thing I have to get out of my head. A couple of years ago, I was sitting in a seminar about racism, institutional and otherwise, sitting with a bunch of very bored interns who were suffering through it as a necessary evil. Many of them thought it was a waste of time. I was inclined to agree with them, mostly because I don't think the seminar changed anyone's outlook, since it was preaching to the choir for some of us, and easily tuned out by the rest.
Anyway, though, there was a statistic that was quoted, and I'm not going to quote it correctly, and I'm too tired to hunt it down. But it had to do with the amount of time people spend thinking about race. The result of the research showed that the average white person thinks about race hardly at all compared to a person of color who thinks about race several times a day.
And that is very, very true. I think about that every time someone makes the always-irritating 'I don't see race' remark, because that is such a sign of privilege, to have the luxury not to think about race. I always just want to reply, 'how nice for you.'
It's exhausting. I truly, honestly despise how often I think about it, about being not-white, and not-male. And let me tell you, I myself am speaking from a place of extreme privilege, I am well aware. I have never been treated ludicrously by the police. I have not been shot. I have not been tear gassed. I live in a part of the country where I hope we would not tolerate this Ferguson noise. But then again, there was Oscar Grant. So who knows really.
And that's the thing. We just can't stop thinking about it.
Anyway, though, there was a statistic that was quoted, and I'm not going to quote it correctly, and I'm too tired to hunt it down. But it had to do with the amount of time people spend thinking about race. The result of the research showed that the average white person thinks about race hardly at all compared to a person of color who thinks about race several times a day.
And that is very, very true. I think about that every time someone makes the always-irritating 'I don't see race' remark, because that is such a sign of privilege, to have the luxury not to think about race. I always just want to reply, 'how nice for you.'
It's exhausting. I truly, honestly despise how often I think about it, about being not-white, and not-male. And let me tell you, I myself am speaking from a place of extreme privilege, I am well aware. I have never been treated ludicrously by the police. I have not been shot. I have not been tear gassed. I live in a part of the country where I hope we would not tolerate this Ferguson noise. But then again, there was Oscar Grant. So who knows really.
And that's the thing. We just can't stop thinking about it.
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