White privilege is something white people are taught not to see in themselves or acknowledge as something that harms others or that something that happens at all. But once as a white person you see that it is happening it changes how you view the world and how others treat you completely. I think one of the more recent times I knew that I, as a white person, had benefited from white privilege was over the summer. A police officer came to the door of my house to tell me that I had parked illegally, although there was no sign stating not to and I had parked in the same spot many times before. While I talked to him, someone else pulled up right behind my car and parked. I looked at the officer and said, “Is he going to get a ticket too, or just me?” I didn’t get the ticket, only a warning, but after I was back inside I realized that if I was a person of color I would not have gotten off so easily and that I would have been too afraid for my safety to even think to be sarcastic. Having white privilege helps me be unafraid in situations no one should be fearful in, no matter their skin color but admitting that I have it brings me one step closer to being able to do something about it to lessen it, or at least try to.
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