Privilege

After my last blog post, I really got to thinking about what I'd written and realized that I hadn't hit upon a very important point.  I am privileged and I didn't talk about that in my previous post.  I wrote about the times that I had been judged because of the color of my skin and how people have made assumptions about me due to being fair skinned, but I did not talk about how being light has also provided me with a certain amount of privilege.  

Because I look white, I do not get followed when I am shopping in a store, I am not assumed to be "up to something" when I am walking down the street, I blend in.  I can fly under the radar, and as an introvert, that is what I usually do.  Yes, I identify as Karuk (my tribe) but I don't go yelling it from the roof tops or telling every person I meet on the street.  This means that I am assumed to be white and left alone pretty much all the time.  When I have been pulled over by police, it was because I was actually doing something wrong (speeding 😬, and it has been many years now since my last one).  I've never gotten out of a ticket, but at least they are usually polite about giving it to me.  I've never been asked to step out of my vehicle or had my vehicle searched.  I've never had a gun pointed at me when I am digging for my vehicle registration or insurance card.  When I call the police for help, they respond and try to help.  

I am privileged because I can pass as white.  It isn't my preference and I have always wished that I looked more Native so that I wouldn't be doubted or denied my ancestry, but it has also made living in predominantly white cities much easier.  I was never called racial slurs or put down because of having brown skin.  I have always been keenly aware that my skin color is both a blessing and a curse.  In Native communities it is more of a curse because blood quantum and skin color have been forced upon us as the qualifying factors for whether you are Indian or not.  No other race is required to document their blood quantum in order to identify with their racial ancestry.  Outside of Native communities, my skin color has been a blessing because I blend in and look like what has been "normalized" as American.    

Basically, I wanted to correct my previous post by saying that I know that I am prvileged.  I know that my life has been easier because of the color of my skin.  It isn't right, it isn't fair, and it should no longer be acceptable.  It never should have been acceptable for people with light skin to be treated so differently than people with brown skin.  We can't change the past, but we MUST learn from it.  We must teach about it and teach our students what they can do to make our society, our nation, and our world better.