Confronting Privilege: The Last Mask of Bigotry

Last updated on: March 26, 2012 at 5:14 pm by Peter Dybing

Confronting Privilege: The Last Mask of Bigotry 2012-03-26T17:14:00-06:00 Peter Dybing

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In response to the recent events individuals of privilege, specifically white men, have the opportunity to turn their privilege on its self. We as a group can reject this last mask of bigotry by using this incident to engage others in a national discussion of the need for justice in this country. Our nations children should not be at risk of being killed for “walking while black”.

Over the course of the last few days it has become clear that the entire concept of privilege is unclear to many. Simply stated, privilege is what allows individuals of a certain race, social class, gender or economic status to achieve the American dream without facing the barriers that those who do not enjoy such status encounter. It is insidious in its very nature, individuals of privilege can go through their entire lives with little if any awareness of the advantages they enjoy.

Are you successful, employed, educated, and safe from violence? If you are, you are a person of privilege. Your success and safety however, comes at a high price. It is based on a system that devalues those without your attributes. This entire phenomena can be viewed as a two-sided coin. On one side is your privilege; on the other there is endemic bigotry. One depends on the other for it’s very survival.

History teaches us that social change movements become effective when individuals of privilege step forward and confront inequity. This lesson, best exemplified by the “Freedom Riders” of the civil rights movement, is a powerful one. The time has come to unmask this unjust system, to live as one human family, to confront the inherent violence of the system, to step forward and be counted. Today I urge all individuals of privilege to unite in opposing the very system that makes us actors in the perpetuation of this last bastion of bigotry.

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