A Message to the Privileged, the Oblivious, and Those who are finally realizing the extent to which Oppressed Groups experience Social Injustice and Inequity in the United States

To those that are privileged, oblivious, and finally able to fathom the injustice, inequity, and oppression experienced by marginalized individuals… Welcome to the party! You have arrived fashionably late.

Caution: When sharing space with oppressed and marginalized individuals, be aware and acknowledge the privilege you hold before sharing your epiphany in the company of vulnerable individuals; because the oppressed have had to contend with their lack of privilege far before you realized you have privilege.

I am triggered by privileged people’s, especially white privileged people’s, lack of awareness, and too late realization of social injustice faced by marginalized individuals. I feel as though I am placed in a position where I must assuage someone’s guilt and fragility; namely, their white guilt and white fragility. It is an icky feeling, the uncomfortableness one feels when thrust to recognize their privilege.

It is a luxury to be blissfully ignorant. A luxury I am not afforded as a Black queer, genderqueer, Southern, Texan, Veteran, Creative living in Portland, Oregon.

I do believe space and grace should be extended to privileged individuals who desire to express newfound wokeness; however, at a minimum, acknowledge the privilege you hold before expressing your realization in spaces shared by people unwillingly enduring oppression. When my oppression is carelessly handled and unconsidered, my feelings of being a minority are heightened and I feel isolated.

May I suggest, before sharing, you internally interrogate what system of oppression is related to your epiphany. Asking yourself, what privilege was illuminated? I encourage the privileged to sit with their discomfort… just for a bit. Remembering racial, cultural, and ethnic minorities experience multiple, intersecting, and compounding systems of oppression daily.

To be clear, I do not prescribe these suggestions as the only way one can be proactively anti-racist, an ally, or an activist. There are many ways. I encourage you to explore them. If there is one thing the year 2020 gave the world, it is a reading list that should keep one busy for a decent while.

You may be wondering what inspired this post. It is of course the attempted coup of bigoted pro-Trump rioters at the United States’ Capitol Hill on January 06, 2021; and me sharing space with well-meaning and good-intentioned social workers in training.

In this piece, I used terms and allude to the works of Kimberlé Crenshaw and Robin DiAngelo. Additionally, Iris Young’s Five Faces of Oppression informed my perspective, and my arguments were framed by theories in social work practice.