To ask when you’ve experienced white privilege

[Whitepriv]

Sadly I know I have. In East London at a high rise, was checking into an Airbnb and couldn’t find the lockbox despite instruction so was looking extremely dodgy, looking under lots of the block of flats windowsills. There’s a young black man hanging out a few metres from me smoking a cig.

Police come by and ask me if I could do with any help and if I’m okay. I tell them that I’m fine but thank you. In less than a minute, I see the same police moving on the young black man for hanging around outside the flats, with a ‘you can’t loiter here’. Sad 😞

White privilege isn’t isolated incidents it’s a daily thing and a way of life we don’t even know we have until it’s pointed out to us by recent events

EVERY SINGLE DAY....and if I happen to forget I'm reminded of it at least once EVERY SINGLE DAY. My husband is black our child mixed, they are constantly treated differently to me, and it is only likely to get worse for my son the older he gets.
everyday things...some overtly...
being stopped by the police, we often drive the same car (separately obs) I have never been stopped, having children removed from the class (we are both teachers)..this has never happened to me, being accused of threatening behaviour when speaking assertively, again I've never been accused of this and tbh my hubby is waaaay calmer then I am, being followed around the supermarket, never happens to me, being verbally abused, being called racially offensive names , only happened to me because I was with my hubby.

I could go on......

Yes, every day. Most egregious one I remember was when I lost my keys, including bike lock key, and DH and I had to saw through my bike lock, which was tied up to a public bike stand. Several people stopped and said "I'm sure you're legit - but what are you doing?" We explained, they laughed, said "Okay, no worries!" and went on their way.
I remember at the time thinking how ridiculous it was that we could do that in broad daylight safe in the knowledge that people would believe us. And that they duly did.

Every single day.

This is a story I’m not proud of:

At a busy London station I got into a slanging match with a member of staff. She had told me the wrong platform and I was alone with 2 kids, one in a buggy. I missed my train and I lost it and swore at her. Horribly and aggressively.
She called the transport police and they basically took my side. She was a woman of colour, I am white with RP accent.
I think I would have been treated very differently had she been white and I the woman of colour.

@LoudBatPerson

Not surprising. As you’ve probably seen recently, we have an enormous “racism problem” here in America.
Ashamed, really. Appalled.

These anecdotes are fascinating but surely as white people we have experienced white privilege all our lives? Every day.

I am ashamed to say I don’t know one non-white person. I wish I did. I would love to learn about different cultures, especially cooking...African & Caribbean in particular. :(

I experience white privilege pretty much every time I go outside and interact with other people. I am never really aware of it and that is part of being privileged.

Sidalee7 interesting you say that as I used to work in a train station and was stopped quite a few times by transport police when swiping my card through the barriers to check if I was really a staff member (petite Asian with hijab). I also had one of them stop me in my own office building where I had been working for years (they were allowed to use our canteen), to ask me for ID. To her credit, my white colleague at the time was fuming when she found out and went to look for him.

I grew up in a part of the UK with all white kids and teachers in school, very small number in comp who were BAME and I'm ashamed to say I never even heard of white privilege before George Floyd. I'm not racist, I had genuinely never witnessed any racism in real life (so I thought). I have spent the last week trying to educate myself and il be honest it's horrific realising that I have had a lot of situations easier because of the colour of my skin and I didn't even know it was just accepted. Wish I knew the answer to make things better.

@callmeadoctor

Have reported this thread as I don't believe it happened and I think it is yet another goady thread!

What is WRONG with you? Open your eyes for god's sake.

Starting to get very suspicious about some of these posters Mumsnet?

Whataloadofshite, says it all

Well I got pulled over by the police because my brake light was out and had a perfectly pleasant interaction where they suggested my husband took my car to Halfords to get it sorted. Philando Castile wasn't quite so lucky when he got pulled over for a broken tail light.

Christ white people are stupid.

Sick of posts like this. Privilege comes in all forms.

My friend and I were going to NYC about 10 years ago so we had to apply for an electronic visa. Are answers were practically identical as we lived together, were the same age, on the same course and both female. I was instantly granted a visa and she wasn’t. The only box we ticked differently on our applications was that of our ethnicity. I am white and she is black. She eventually was given the visa and we were able to travel to the US. In Times Square, a black man just kept staring at us with a confused look on his face. When we passed him he said ‘whats up salt and pepper’. We both busy out laughing. The look on his face clearly indicated this was not the reaction he expected. At the time I thought to myself how lucky I was to be born and raised in a country (UK) where two girls, one black and one white, can walk down the street together and nothing is thought of it.

Our* ffs. Sorry really late and tired
Burst*

Christ white people are stupid.

Racist

vodka The comment might be rude or incorrect, but it isn't racist, because it isn't made against a backdrop of hundreds of years of oppression.

Let's not pretend that a black person being rude to a white person has anything in common with what black people experience from white people every day.

Oh good, more of these bullshit posts...

Lots of examples of embellishment, bullshit, irelivence and utter non issues but very few examples of so called white privileged. London is one if the most multicultural cities in the world, try living where discrimination truly exists.

@Ihadvodkaforbreakfast

Christ white people are stupid.

Racist

Plot twist:

i'm white.

Oh yes! Tried to buy a new build in the south of france but was told, 'we don't sell to the English'! I felt so privileged at that moment.

So privileged that my dad had four shifts down the mine, working at the coal face all of his life, except for the years in a POW camp! The shifts changed weekly so his body clock didn't get a chance to adjust. I felt so privileged to walk to school with cardboard lining my shoes during the miners strikes as my parents couldn't afford to buy me shoes. So privileged to be subject to sexual harassment in the work place until I ran my own business!

Furthermore, I am so privileged to have donated to my pittance of a pension to be taxed on it once again since I have the temerity to continue in employment (as I would struggle to live on just over £6k pa). Oh I am so privileged.