Jim Stauffer,
Canada
An Indigenous adult student in my class once remarked, “I’m so tired of being followed around in stores.” My co-worker who is Indigenous also has the same experience. Unearned white privilege creates an automatic assumption on the part of floor walkers that I am in their store on legitimate shopping business. My adolescent shoplifting never enters their story about me, whereas their story about my Indigenous friends is built on prejudgments based on lies they inherited as surely as I inherited privilege.
