The conversation went something like; I don’t have white privilege. Yes, I am white but I am not privileged …

I was raised in a poor family, and never went to college. I work hard and …

Then she goes on about all the hardship she’s ever faced.

But there lies the problem, white privilege is not a life free from hardship that’s just privilege White privilege is a life free from Black hardships.

And to understand why you must also understand the other.

Black hardship isn’t poverty, illiteracy or tragedy, that’s just hardship.

Black hardship is police brutality, wage gaps, and unequal opportunity. 

NO, it’s more.

Black hardship is guilty until proven innocent … It’s a beauty standard impossible for Black women to achieve, it’s a lack of representation on TV, it’s a never-ending road of products not designed to accommodate the people who look like me.

YES

Black hardship is every aspect of Black life that white eyes are not equipped to see.

She looks confused so I slow down to reiterate.

Your race is a privilege and your privilege allows you to forget that race matters.

But Black hardship is a set of trials in which a race is the only factor repeated in the pattern.

Now don’t get defensive,

I’m not blaming you specifically, after all your ignorance it’s not your fault.

but society is an open wound and white privilege; the salt

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