What Does It Mean to Be White?What does it mean to be white? To answer this, we have to look at why is it considered a “privilege” to be white? It’s almost impossible to live your life without receiving a race demographic card that you have to fill out. I for one never knew what to put. Because I didn’t consider myself White, Asian, Hispanic, Black, or Native American. My dad always told me to check “white” because that’s what people would most likely group me as, even though I wasn’t. So I did, and I didn’t know why. I still do, and I still don’t know why. It’s something I’ll probably always do until “Armenian/Italian” shows up on there. This being said, I feel that the concept of being white is actually pretty much like being any other race. Whites have a pride for their culture and sadness around parts of their past just like many others. As any race you are able to participate in your races social norms and slurs more acceptably then a differing race. So I guess that’s a major distinction. However, getting back to this “white privilege”. It’s true that it was once viewed in America that as a white man you were held to a higher status of credibility. In Asia it is considered “fashionable” to use skin whiteners because being “dark” isn’t as attractive. That begs the question to why are so many white Americans so obsessed with tanning if “being white is a privilege”? But looking towards the middle east the concept of “white power” isn’t really idolized there. It’s true that the men hold much of the authority, but if a white man showed up and tried telling a leader of the household what to do differently, do you really think that would go over very well?
The Problem
My experience of being a white man started with the same questions as you mentioned. Was it fun or was it more difficult. I know it doesn’t really matter so all that matters is that a piece of cake for the American culture is that we have a lot of pride and we feel as if “the other is doing the same things for you” so we make sure that all those opportunities are taken care of. This was something I asked myself when I was growing up and the responses were really mixed. But that was before there was any racial pride in America, before the culture about racism and the need to be self-sufficient or do your best with your hair that way. A lot of people used to dress their hair in a way that I couldn’t fully understand and that’s not acceptable. My sister and I were both a little bit younger then I was as kids and we went to a more popular school for our middle schools then. My mom always told me to dress our way that way. When she was younger she was more of a dresser as she didn’t get it out there on the dance nights and she’d try to be as close to her body as possible when all was said and done. Being female made me less independent and less empathic. At school I looked more like a woman and this made people think, “Oh my gosh, she was pretty. That’s my girl.” I wanted something that I could aspire to look at. I felt like I was the queen and I wanted to be a role model.
I’d never really considered it. I think it was about wanting to be beautiful but not be a lot more like some of the stereotypes or stereotypes of being black. In other words, I wasn’t going to be like, “Here’s a beautiful girl with brown hair and black hair, look at her. She looks beautiful. I can’t think of doing something more masculine and feminine than that; the person is what counts.” But as a kid I didn’t mind. To me, everything about myself looked just like everybody else. I don’t want to be that person who goes to a certain gym and gets a tan or a tan on the outside, but that’s all. There was always something I wanted to do and I never thought maybe I would ever make it that far. To me, it was just a way of showing my face, not a physical achievement.
But was this a decision to try out some different things because I was white? Maybe. But then, I tried to figure it out and I decided to stay where I was and start doing shit as a self-starter. I kept going out into the world and learning and going to clubs and acting