I think it’s hard to ignore white privilege or at least refute it. However, it gets lost in the rush of life. We all lead lives of fast paced, high stress and carry with us as we begin the next leg of our lives a pass/fail mentality.  I have to assume that I’ve been helped from White Privilege and not even known about it. So I want to stress that’s not to say that it’s a lesser issue and should be forgotten, reading the news and media with discerning eyes can refresh ones’ memory.

At the same time, white privilege affects people of color all across the nation, however here at the university in our small bubble community the idea of Institutionalized discrimination is lesser than on a national scale. At the University, we all share the common bonds of a higher standard of education, diversity and understand. I realize that since I’m white, and its slightly odd for me to ask daily to people of color; “excuse me, have you been discriminated against today?” I wish I could do this without some sort of repercussions. But since I can’t, I cant fully say for certain whether or not I’m evoking the principle of White Denial or am I truly locked into the experiences at the University.

I recently rented a house with 4 of my friends; we had no problem securing the house with paying our money of course. Of the list of white privilege items, McIntosh provided, who knows how I’ve been helped or “overprivileged.” There is a red line under the last word. Hah. I’m scouring my brain for examples of privilege that ive experienced, but I can’t seem to find one. I believe this is because I don’t know everything about the struggles others have to endure. Sure, I can read about these things, but in my personal experience I don’t have examples to focus on in the microscope.

I do believe that I’ve heard dialogs that if examined indicate a sense of superiority. Once again, I have no one close to me that I could discuss problems and concerns on the other side of the fence. I would love to discuss this with anyone, but it’s so hard to strike a conversation of this sort.

I’ll finish with a theory I have that has troubled me, it indicates a superiority and a counter-response. Its called reverse-discrimination, striking huh? While in Spain, I spoke Spanish with everyone. Sure people could discern that I wasn’t a native speaker, but I was proficient enough that they couldn’t tell where I was from, just that I didn’t speak like they did. I’d say I was from the UK. Haha. Anyways, I enjoyed a sense of freedom speaking with almost anyone, continuing to improve my language skills. When I got back in the States, my first day, and my mom took me to EL Fenix. This delicious Mexican restaurant offers the best enchiladas in the world; it also has native speakers from Mexico. I went to the bathroom and I heard Spanish being spoken, so with my friendly Spanish mindset I say discupleme and starting talking to them. They ignored me at first and then replied in English. I was mentally displaced. So I insisted and replied in Spanish, they gave me a grin and I asked them what kind of accent I had and they said Castellano. Kinda joyful to me. Ok basically what I took from this, is that in my home area in Dallas, no white speaks Spanish, while I realize that discrimination is probably a too hard word here, but it’s the notion that when a white guy like me really talks Spanish and not the stereotypical, degrading Spanish that I’ve seen especially towards servers, its not the norm.

I wouldn’t cast judgment on either group, but it’s a sign of stereotyping. One that whites cant speak Spanish and Latinos can’t speak English. And there’s always the sense that Latinos should speak English, sometimes people speak louder in English because they think it will help understand the language. Hah.

I dont get whats going on here.