Penny dropping on privilege, my privilege…

The other day, Mimi wrote a tweet that caused me to think, deeply, and to recognise that the first question that popped in my head happened for no other reason than my own white privilege.

I wonder how it feels to think of yourself as a woman with no additional qualifiers.

— Maleika 'Mimi' Robinson (@mimicomplex) August 23, 2016

I’m embarrassed to admit that *I* couldn’t understand what she was talking about.  My first question was why wouldn’t she see herself as just a woman without a qualifier.  Now, I could write an excuse that I was tired when I read it as I was heading off to bed.  The problem is it’s just an excuse.  The truth is that I’ve never had to imagine what it would feel like to just see myself as a woman, I do.  I don’t add a qualifier, I don’t have to, I’m white.

And, much to my dismay, it took several minutes for it to click in that she was talking about being a Black woman.  That penny dropping has stayed with me for days now.  How easy it is to live inside my world.  How easy it is being white in a world where white is the default color all around us, everywhere we look.

I was on my way to bed so I didn’t see that the tweet was the first in a series of tweets.  I took it as a stand alone, my take-away may not even be what she was trying to get across, but her words taught me something anyway.  As a stand alone it was powerful to me in ways that I’m still thinking about.  So, today, I went to find it to share with you how a one-liner cut through all the chaff in daily life and made me realize how many different ways I’m so very privileged, a privilege I didn’t earn on my own merits, I earned because my skin is white.  Words can be powerful.  Thank you Mimi.

 

Because I never think of myself as just a woman. When and where I enter, it is always as a black woman.

— Maleika 'Mimi' Robinson (@mimicomplex) August 23, 2016

So when I hear that you look around the room and want to see more women, I wonder if you even see me when you are counting female bodies.

— Maleika 'Mimi' Robinson (@mimicomplex) August 23, 2016

Because I never look around and wish there were women. I always look for the black folk first, regardless of gender.

— Maleika 'Mimi' Robinson (@mimicomplex) August 23, 2016

Mimi is also an adoptive mom and blogs here, FB page here, she’s a good writer, she is also ABM’s partner on Add Water and Stir podcasts (FB page here) that I always find interesting.