When I first started my job at a restaurant I remember being taught how to reset/turn tables over after a person got up to leave in the station where condiments go, the term "white is right" describes which side to put the salt. The term creates uniform in the restaurant so that each table is almost identical.

I remember first hearing the term and thinking nothing of it. When it was my turn to reset my first table I finished by checking the condiment station at the table. "White is right" I repeated in my head, and that's when it hit me. How could a phrase so simple, a phrase I'm sure meant no harm, spark this feeling within me? I kept thinking: If white was "right" what did that make black?

I struggled with this. Should I just ignore it? Should I try and come up with another term to suggest? This simple rhyme held so much power. What if the term was "white goes on the right"? You still have a rhyme without the baggage that is carried with "white is right," but what happened when my managers couldn't understand why I didn't like the phrase? What happened when their white privilege prevented them from seeing clearly why I was uncomfortable? All I could think about was the power of the words white and black and the connotation they have.

Why do we see white as pure and angelic and good, but we see black as evil and sinister and impure? It seems natural, right? That's what we were taught. That's what we grew up to believe, but when someone comes along and challenges these ideals, people seem so blind. is that not coincidental that the very race that is under supremacist attack, devalued, stripped of our culture and of who we are, is described with a word that connotes negative feelings and emotions?

I encourage others not to use this phrase. It may sound dumb to extract something so simple from our language, but remember that it goes beyond how you feel. Remember that there is so much carried with it, whether you can see it or not. If it isn't your baggage, I accept that you may not understand, but know that others have this baggage. Simple words and phrases can mean so much, and that's something everyone can understand.