Blog against racism

I'd hoped to find time to write something more elaborate in honour of the day, but fortune intervened.

Instead, I offer you Peggy McIntosh's essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. If any of my white readers are not familiar with it, they should have a look at it --- at least the middle section, "daily effects of white privilege." The sections bookending it may not be so digestible for someone who hasn't drunk pretty deeply from feminist or lefty culture, but the list is necessary reading for any white American.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

Sobering stuff.