It works like this – it doesn’t matter what my reality is, it doesn’t matter what my lineage is, my religion, my sexual orientation, my political ideology, my country of origin, my wellness, or my income. It doesn’t matter when compared to my white male privilege – it doesn’t matter because I can hide anything and everything behind my white male privilege. I don’t have to be defined by anything other than my white male privilege unless I CHOOSE to be defined. I can choose to speak to my roots, to name my higher power, to come out, to vote, to be patriotic, to seek help, to externalize wealth. I can choose to do those things because I am defined by my white male privilege. If I choose to re-define myself by other factors I do so through my white male privilege, and my white male privilege factors into how I am treated.
If I am defined by others, or by circumstances, it pivots around my privilege.

I can become marginalized, through being authentic, but I can still withdraw back to my white male privilege. I can attempt to transcend it, to shed it, to deny it, to work around it, to use it to the benefit of others – but all of that still pivots around the central core of my white male privilege.
Everything that I can do, everything that I can be, everything that I am is tied to my white male privilege.
I have, by the simple nature of my birth, more power and privilege than any other person on this planet – unless they are also a white male.
The fact that I have to comprehend the marginalized experience of others actually speaks volumes to the reality of my white male privilege – because I do not experience anything other than my white male privilege.

I should not feel shame, or guilt, or unease, or anything negative about who I am – but I am beholden to all other humans who I share this earth with to very clearly understand that if I act without accepting my white male privilege then I am contributing to the oppression that gives me so much more at the cost of others.

I know that minority classes exist within the spectrum of white males, and I know that oppression and marginalization are also their experiences – but the cascade of privilege rolls downward from the top, and it is awful that I get to be at the top for doing nothing other than being born into this body.

It is a simple thing to understand the concept of white male privilege, and it is a simple thing to listen to the experiences of people who do not share in that privilege.
I do not lose anything in acknowledging these things, not anything that is worth more than the equality of my fellow humans.

#whitemaleprivilege