Ancestral sins, from which I’ve benefited

David Young
Madison, WI

So far as I know, my ancestors all came from Europe too late to have owned slaves. But I’ve benefited in countless ways from being white: better schools, safer neighborhoods, more opportunities, more trust from strangers, larger inheritance because my parents had those opportunities…. So saying, “Let’s all be color-blind now” is saying “Let’s freeze the status quo where whites enjoy the consequences of centuries of privilege.”