“Privilege Blinds”

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[ Summer Vacation, 2015]

Last week, fifteen members of my family, three generations of us, gathered at a funky, run-down, eight-bedroom house on a lake in Connecticut—fairly easy to get to for those of us based in New England; much harder for those living in, say, Salt Lake City or Louisville, Kentucky. (But they came, anyway.)

On Day 2 my almost three-year-old granddaughter wondered, “Grandma! Is this your new house?”

Her question triggered a childhood memory: I remembered visiting a Cape Cod mansion built by my great-grandfather — where another branch of the Wild family summered. I remember how I much I’d wished it had been my extended family’s commodious summer home; how jealous I was that my blond, tanned, barefoot cousins were so little awed, so nonchalant that this elegant house, its private beach, and the pretty wooden sailboat waiting at the dock were theirs and at their disposal whenever they wanted. “I only tell of sunny hours,” the sundial in the garden in front of that memorable, longed-for house proclaimed. I remember how, despite my covetousness, that inscription intrigued me.

“Oh, little girl,” I wish I could tell that jealous, intrigued mini-me. “You have no idea how privileged you are!”

(She wouldn’t believe me.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 Comment

  1. Dear Patricia,

    Hello, there my so, so very dearly special and dearest and precious sisterfriend, Patricia! Wow, I am just so very thrilled and happy for you, sister, and for your family that you had such a fantastically fantabulous vacation and family reunion!!!!! I was praying so hard and so often for you, Patricia, and for your dearest and darling family(as I do For Always in general anyway to keep you all covered by our Dear Spirit’s Love and Grace) that you would have such a fun-filled, and very marvelously FUN, FUN, and MORE FUN vacation! I loved hearing about this as I am sure your other very appreciative and grateful readers do as well, sisterfriend!

    Patricia, I can just imagine and see in my mind’s eye when I pray and meditate how having white privilege can be blinded by itself if I were to imagine myself as a white person, sister! I think this makes so, so very much perfect sense, Patricia! It makes so much sense, Patricia, because you and other dearest and darling white persons have been raised and conditioned a certain way with white privilege and your white process, white conditioning, and white enculturation. I can just imagine and see in my mind’s eye and when I pray and meditate that if I were a white woman that it would be hard to see beyond the only reality which I would have known as a white person because this is what you and other white persons are accustomed to and by which all of you have been conditioned. I understand so, so very well with all that I have in my very heart, and my very heart, soul, and spirit, Patricia! Patricia, you do so well seeing and acting beyond the very parameters of your worldview in your so dear and precious love for us as black persons and other nonwhite persons in your spectacular allyship and solidarity as a wondrously wonderful white anti-racist woman, sister!!!!!! You do so excellent, my friend as you love, recognize, validate, acknowledge, support, and how you are also so sensitively concerned with us as blacks and persons of color in your astute awareness, sisterfriend!!!!! I thank-you so, so very profusely For Always, Patricia!!!!!! As well, I know that just as all of our Good God’s children are only doing their best that as our Spirit’s children you, Patricia, and other white persons are only doing your very best along your imperfect lifetime’s path and journey. I know that you, Patricia, and other white women are only doing your best, because you, sisterfriend, and other white women as I For Always say as the Christian lesbian black woman who I am are For Always my very heart!!!!! I can somehow just envision in my own mind and as I imagine what it would be like for white persons, in particular for white women if I were to be a white woman, sister! I will never ever give up on you, Patricia, and on other white persons, and I will For Always remain steadfast and committed to our process my journey with you, sisterfriend, and with other white persons in our racial justice education and work together toward racial healing and reconciliation. I do this work joyfully as a part of my sacred commitment to our Good God Spirit, and for you, Patricia, and for other white persons like with my local white sisterfriends who I so love and cherish but also for all white persons both near and far!!!!! What a great joy and a blessing this brings to me and I have For Always wanted to reach out across racial lines for as long as I can remember, Patricia!!!!!!

    Patricia, I thank-you so for this grandly astounding blog post article of yours and for your great and fun sharing! Please have a wondrously wonderful Wednesday, and may the rest of your week be wondrously wonderful, my friend and sisterfriend Christian!!!!!!

    Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my precious white sister and friend, Patricia, with Peace and Love To You For Always, and Blessings and Even More Blessings To You For Always,

    Your Christian lesbian black friend and sister For Always in solidarity, Sherry Gordon

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