I know some of you think that there has never been a worse time to be a straight white man, that everyone hates you, and everyone believes you're treated way better than you deserve to be. Well, you can set your mind at ease. Nobody hates you for being a straight white man. It is not a choice, and we understand that. We also understand that you're not treated any better than you deserve to be. In our society, you're simply treated better than everyone else.
Privilege is essentially a right or immunity that everyone should have, but that only a few people can enjoy. When applying for a job, everyone should be judged based upon the quality of their resume, rather than on the ethnicity of their name. We should all feel protected, rather than victimized by our police. We should all be presumed innocent when we enter the justice system, rather than assumed guilty based upon the color of our skin. We should all feel confident that our government will protect our rights to love the people we love. We should all be able to search for work in our field, confident that our applications and auditions are judged solely on their merit.
Everyone should have these privileges, but unfortunately, only one group of people enjoy all of them. Again, this isn't your fault, It's the fault of a system that was built by and for people like you. Straight white men are the only group of people who have never been persecuted for their race, gender, or sexuality, and despite what some would have you believe, you are not being persecuted now. You are still 50 percent more likely to get a job than a black man is, even if you have the same resume. You still earn 25 percent more than a white woman does, 36 percent more than a black woman, and 46 percent more than a Hispanic woman.
Ultimately, white men occupy a sphere of complete privilege, which can make it difficult to really understand the plight of others."Privilege is invisible to those who have it." This still doesn't mean that anybody hates you, or that we want you to feel guilty. We are simply asking that you recognize your privilege and use the voice that it provides you to speak up for others who do not share them.
