As I continue my journey of learning of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, I took a wonderful workshop today: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

Dr. Peggy McIntosh reflects in her powerful essay:

I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.

It’s worth a read in full. It struck me how many forces are at play, both conscious and subconscious, that affect our daily lives:

• If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live

• Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against

  appearance of financial reliability.

• I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

For me, I am incredibly fortunate. Powerful forces (my heritage, citizenship, skin color, race, religion, etc) have pushed me up. In short, I am extremely lucky.

And only recently, I’ve realized how the darker forces can push others down. It’s not fair; it’s not equal, and it’s definitely not just. In the workshop, we talked about how to lessen our own privilege to make space for others.

Here was a fantastic illustration that helped me:

Some tips they shared: Interrupt the default of doing nothing. Recognize your success is so much more beyond you. Start small. If you are a position of any success, reach farther to lift more.

My small part: I am doing work with Braven, an organization that empowers promising young people (especially from underrepresented groups) on their path to college graduation and strong first jobs. Check them out!

To close, I’ll leave you with a quote from Toni Morrison, a novelist who wrote about the Black experience, that gave me chills:

“If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem”