Nathan Henderson-James,
Oakland, CA.
6 words is obviously limiting. However, my 6 reflect my own experience growing up as one of the few white kids in my local public schools. It was an education being constantly in the minority (in school, outside of those walls, I was comfortably back in a white affluent world) and one that more people with white skin privilege need to go through. It breed empathy, understanding, and a full 360 degree view of people from outside your own background. You get the good, the bad, and the ugly. It made me better at dealing with difference and better at interrogating my own prejudices, internalized racism, and privilege. It wasn’t sufficient to make me struggle for racial justice, but it was, for me, a necessary component for striding that path. And that’s why I picked my 6 words. Because people with white skin privilege need to experience being the only one more often. It won’t be sufficient to build the political will to change the institutional racism in our various national systems and culture, but it is necessary to help build the shared experience necessary to have an honest conversation about getting there.
