Privilege

In honor of Black History Month, I am going to exercise #4 suggested by the Instagram post below (which was my radar thanks to Hannah's reposting):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kerry Connelly (@kerry.connelly) on Feb 1, 2019 at 6:53am PST

10 ways I personally benefit from privilege:

1. Almost all public spaces feel welcoming to me, including museums, office buildings, and libraries. 
2. I can choose not to follow the news without it having a great effect on me.  
3. I am not afraid of the police. I have never been afraid of the police. 
4. I don’t worry about my husband having an altercation with the police.
5. I don’t worry about how to raise my children to behave around the police and law enforcement.
6. Sephora and other beauty/makeup shops always have makeup that matches with my skin tone and hair products that work for my hair.
7. I don’t have to worry about speaking “correctly” in person or over the phone in order to avoid being negatively judged.
8. I grew up in a “nice area of town” and experienced no financial troubles growing up. This is undoubtedly due in part (if not in large part) to the fact that my family is white.
9. Shop employees don’t follow me around the store, afraid I’m going to shoplift.
10. I can find many, many representations of myself in the media I consume (tv shows, movies, books). 

A couple other culture suggestions for this month:

• Read the short story collection Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. To be honest, the stories are extremely depressing and disturbing, but there's no denying the author's brilliance, especially in the first story, called "The Finkelstein 5." 
• Listen to this great interview with the 75-year-old black poet Nikki Giovanni. She's got spunk! Also, she knew Rosa Parks!