Explaining Diversity as an Ally     Yes, I am a white female.  Yes, I am blessed to have privilege b

Explaining Diversity as an Ally     Yes, I am a white female.  Yes, I am blessed to have privilege by living and growing up in New York.  Yes, I can only sympathize with, try and comfort, my friends of color who face discrimination daily.  Luckily, growing up in the city, and going to a school which offers an array of classes based on Race, I have been able to learn more about race through historical and personal anecdotes. However, what do you do when a close relative visits your ‘liberal bubble’, and immediately says things that you deem as ‘politically incorrect’? Here is my experience.     Let me first start off by saying this is not a diss to any of my family members, but more so an experience I am using to explain a subject to many people who maybe live in their ‘liberal bubble’ in America, and still don’t believe opinions like this still exist.     I remember going out to dinner with my said relative, who is around the same age as me, yet we grew up in completely different environments.      Although many of the comments and slurs he used seemed to be in a very ‘ignorant’ and ‘unknowing’ matter, I found my sister and I correcting him quite a bit.  First, and foremost, he assumed all black kids lived in the “ghetto”, and frequently described them as “intercity” kids.  My sister and I caught him slipping these words out frequently, and told him that the reason as to maybe why these kids were pushed into low income neighborhoods was due to the circumstances their race gave them in the past when it comes to housing.   Additionally, this year, my senior seminar read the book The New Jim Crowe that explained as to why many people of color were forced into these neighborhoods was also due to the fact they were unfairly incarcerated, thus making their living conditions scarce due to the low influx of payment after being labelled as a felon.  Most of these felons, additionally, were due to owning a small recreational amount of marijuana, which I know for a FACT many of my peers have had on numerous occasions.      That being said: not all people of color live in low-income neighborhoods.     We then changed the subject to college.  He and I were both graduating soon, and would be attending universities on the Northeast.  When we were ranting about the admissions process, he talked about this frustration he had with the choosing of students.  He stated that it was ‘easier’ for black kids to get into college due to their race.  This is just a false assumption, again, my sister and I pointed out.  Many admissions people can be racist, we explained, and usually only accept people of color in their institutions unless they are above and beyond their expectations.  Meaning, many students have to work EXTREMELY hard in order for their achievement to be noticed over a white student’s. This is because many might perceive their race as a group of people who are: ‘lazy, poor, drug dealers, and/or criminals’.  While these assumptions about the admissions’ office may not apply to all colleges, we have to recognize these stereotypes reside in workplaces, primary schools, etc..  They still do exist.  Luckily, some schools are working to change this, and pride themselves off of their diversity.  Again, this doesn’t apply to all institutions.     Overall, my relative was respectful enough to listen to our points, and many times either disagreed or agreed.  These conversations, though, taught myself as an Ally to ensure that I use my privileged to continue to inform my other privileged friends and relatives about the race issue in America.  Hopefully, by reaching out and speaking up about these issues, we can continue to dismantle racist remarks, stereotypes, and stigmas being placed on people of color. Article by Zoe Photo by Chris and Jonathan Schoonover  -- source link

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