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 😞

I think the fact that I've always been able to walk around without being conscious of my race, being able to be my true self, reflects my white privilege.

Went to a restaurant and my friend went in first while i was looking for parking. When i got to the entrance he was standing there telling me they were fully booked. I went in and asked for a table, got one right away.

Yep, even little things like having plasters that can generally blend in with my complexion. Plasters aren’t “nude” for everyone

Every day since I was born.

A lot when I was younger and working mainly in bars and restaurants. Being young, attractive and female definitely worked in my favour.
I worked in a club that had predominantly BAME clientele, after 4 months I was promoted to manager. Black members of staff who had worked their for years didnt even get considered. Technically I was probably more qualified and experienced in management, but there were other members of staff who had worked there years who would have been perfectly good candidates and it was likely white privilege that had enabled me to gain the experience in the first place. I was a lot younger and didnt realise the injustice at the time, I look back and it makes me really sad

Yes all the time. Numerous times I've been trusted and treated respectfully when it could have gone the other way. I'm confident and sound middle class so that is part of it too. I've lived abroad a lot and have friends of different nationalities and races so I've been aware of my privilege. It upsets me when white friends deny they've had an advantage.

I was at Heathrow airside and had some time before boarding so I sat in a cafe for a while. After having something to eat I left, taking my carry on wheelie suitcase with me. I looked around the shops for about ten minutes and then happened to look down and realised - not only was that not my wheelie suitcase but I actually hadn't brought any carry on luggage with me. My suitcase had already been checked in. I had just - on autopilot - grabbed the suitcase that was sticking up between the tables at the cafe I'd been sitting in. I do this journey a lot and usually do have a wheelie suitcase with me...

I ran back to the cafe in a panic thinking either the airport security / police were already after me or they soon would be as soon as owner realised what had happened. Clearly I could have stolen things from the case or stuffed it with drugs or explosives. I ran up, huffing and puffing, and explained what had happened - which actually sounds mad anyway. The man whose suitcase it was just looked a little puzzled and smiled and said thank you - he hadn't even noticed it had gone.

This was such a potentially disastrous thing to happen - for both of us. From his perspective, I could have been a criminal or a terrorist. And for me - the police could have misinterpreted my innocent mistake as something much more dangerous.

Fortunately I am a white, middle aged, middle class woman. Not an Arab man or a black man. Then everyone would have read my actions quite differently.

I once inadvertently used a counterfeit coin to pay for something: The cashier said it was fake and, embarrassed, I apologised, said that I hadn’t realised and used other change. The police weren’t called, I wasn’t murdered.

I recently experienced something horrible. I was walking with my 11 yr old son, yr 6, going to collect my car, we are white. We walked down a public road, on one side is a council estate. As we walked through we started to hear jeers of 'oi white boy' 'white boy here boys' etc. My son, bless him was scared and automatically slid his hand in mine which caused a riot of name calling, mainly referring to his skin colour and using foul language. We were both scared and I just said keep walking, don't look at them, keep walking. They followed us jeering until we got to the main street and then they just shouted not to go to their estate again. There are clearly no-go area's in London for white people too. Kilburn NW6.

About every day of my life. That's kind of how it works.

I don't think a lot of people on this thread understand what white privaledge is. If you are white then you experience every day, all the time.

I am white but because I have certain features (hair, eyes and olive skin) I don't think I have gone a day without being asked my ethnicity and when answering having the person argue with me and ask why am I lying.

Sorry I know it's not what the OP was asking, but I just had to get it off my chest.

I remember at school there was a girl who always got top grades, worked hard and had beautiful handwriting. A teacher told her that her handwriting wasn’t like a black pupil’s writing.

@PaulFrank6

I am white but because I have certain features (hair, eyes and olive skin) I don't think I have gone a day without being asked my ethnicity and when answering having the person argue with me and ask why am I lying.

Sorry I know it's not what the OP was asking, but I just had to get it off my chest.

Sorry but I don't think that is anywhere near the realities BAME people face daily due to institutionalised racism and white privaledge.

I'm privileged every day because I'm white.

One specific example I can think of - I was talking to a Kenyan friend about a trip I was planning in the future to Eastern Europe and she said that it wasn't somewhere she would ever feel safe going to because of racism. That made me stop and think.

I’m pretty shocked at the fact that there are 8 pages discussing “white privilege” and not one person seems to know what it actually means. It’s a term than seems to be thrown around a lot and no one knows what it means or it’s origins!

@GreytExpectations sorry my point was, as a white person who often gets mistaken for being BAME, I have experienced and still do experience many of things that are coming to light now.

Probably not the right thread to be talking about it, so I will shut up now and go back in my box.

All the time.

As a kid, I regularly saw it. I grew up in a part of England that is well known for diversity and would always see how I was treated differently compared to friends, and my black friends definitely got it the worst. I didn't understand what it wasn't the time being so young but I quickly learnt.

My DH only properly realised it recently. We moved from the UK to another white country. Discussions of foreigners taking jobs and DH pointed out that meant him. "No, not you. Them" someone saidm nobody was around but it was clear who this guy meant. My DH doesn't know if it's because he is white or British. I know it's a bit of both but English speaking and white is at the top.

Fortunately I am a white, middle aged, middle class woman. Not an Arab man or a black man. Then everyone would have read my actions quite differently

Would they? I wouldn't!

GreytExpectations, I dont disagree that white privilege is something we experience every day, however I interpreted the thread to mean the OP was asking for specific examples?

Obviously every day now, on account oF being white adult female. However I was 12 before I even saw a black person in real life other than on TV, so maybe exclude that bit.

I think white privelege is that no matter how much a Muslim woman says she is wearing a hijab of her own will, she isn't believed and anything 'foreign' is only accepted once it has been validated by a white person.

For those who don't understand what white privaledge is please may I reccomend you read the book "Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race" by Reni Eddo-lodge

Being able to walk through the heart of the city of London with a big bag of swords the day after 7/7 and never be challenged. A colleague had his entire wall decorated with stop and search notices!

Sorry my post was in response to just one PP here. Thank you to everyone else for sharing their stories, some very very moving to a lot of people and you give a lot of hope for our DCs' future.