Free So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Page B

they will actually try. No, you do not owe someone who is oppressing you with their unexamined privilege any particular kindness or education, but know that you have unexamined privilege too,no matter how woke you think you are—and someone will be telling you to check your privilege while you try to battle your own defensiveness as you figure out what the hell they are talking about.
    If someone confronts you with your privilege from a place of anger or even hatred, if someone does not want to take the time or does not have the emotional energy to further explain to you where yourprivilege lies, know that it is still a kindness. Try to remember that the alternative to not being made aware of your privilege (no matter how it may sting) is your continued participation in the oppression of others. Someone is giving you an opportunity to do better, no matter how unpleasant the delivery. Thank them.
    Once you are aware of your privilege, you can get to work on dismantling it.This is where checking your privilege really pays off. Here are some examples of where you can find both privilege and opportunities to help create change in your day-to-day life:
    Does your privilege mean that you are more likely to sit in a manager’s meeting while others are not? Ask why there are no disabled people in the room.
    Does your privilege mean that politiciansare begging for your political support? Ask what they are going to do for people of color next time they knock on your door to hand you a flier.
    Were you able to get a fancy private education as a child? Use your resulting financial security to support levies to improve public schools.
    Don’t have to juggle work and children? Use the promotion that added flexibilityhelped you get to support employer-funded childcare and family leave programs.
    Have the schedule flexibility to attend a PTA meeting? At your next meeting, ask them to move future meeting times to hours that more working parents can attend and give parents other ways to contribute if they can’t be there.
    The possibilities of where you can leverage your privilege to make real,measurable change toward a better world are endless. Every day you are given opportunities to make the world better, by making yourself a little uncomfortable and asking, “who doesn’t have this same freedom or opportunity that I’m enjoying now?” These daily interactions are how systems of oppression are maintained, but with awareness, they can be how we tear those systems down.
    So please, checkyour privilege. Check it often.

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What is intersectionality and why do I need it?
    “I ’ M SO SORRY ,” I SAID AS MY PHONE BUZZED AGAIN, “Can you excuse me for a minute? I have this—thing I need to take care of with my kids really quick.”
    My dinner companion graciously nodded in reply and I rushed upstairs to my hotel room, to my laptop. “Come on… come on…” I said to myself as I tried to quickly run the online program. Iknew that every minute this took made me more and more rude, and more and more a liar. No, there was no issue with my kids, and yes, it’s pretty shitty to use them as an excuse (hey, consider it a rare indulgence for single parents). But I was damned if I was going to say, “Sorry, I have to leave our dinner to go run a program to block thousands of Twitter trolls who think I hate black men beforethis shit goes viral and I can never use Twitter again.” There’s no rescuing dinner after that.
    It had started quietly enough weeks earlier. I had found out that a famous black male musician was coming to town to perform. This musician (who shall remain nameless) was long believed by many, including myself, to be a sexual predator of multiple young black women and teenage girls. How could a manso notorious for suspicion of such heinous offenses sell out an arena in liberal Seattle? How was this man still rich and famous? I tweeted out some of my frustration, expressing the desire that, if he’d never see jail