I think the basis of the article on ‘privilege’ stems from hidden paradigms. A crucial facet of these paradigms is that it remains hidden unless we have a reason to unlock it. I saw it for myself on my Instagram feed last month – endless black squares shared by friends – with repeating captions of solidarity like #BLM, #blackouttuesday. What remained a taboo topic for so long became the only thing that people talked about. Perhaps the murder of George Floyd was the reason this paradigm unraveled, revealing the history of systematic injustice, violence against black people, and the concept of white privilege. This idea of a hidden paradigm can be shown through the author’s frequent use of the word ‘unacknowledged’ in describing white privilege. We know it is there, but we feel as though we have the power to not admit it. Perhaps people chose not to face the fact that they are privileged because they interpret it as something beyond their control like biology (birth) and pure luck (which it can be) – however, as the author proves in her article, sometimes it can be systematic – where conscious choices have been made to marginalize certain groups over others. These harmful yet very pertinent interpretations cloud the fact that white privilege is a cause of racism. It oversees the fights and words of numerous people of color, who for centuries, recognized white privilege as the repercussion of conscious doings. I don’t think having white privilege and recognizing it is racist – but the purposeful ignorance is because white privilege exists because of enduring biases. I believe that the will to act and change things is imperative. It is significant though that a paradigm shift, in this case – a systemic change – will take years. Every human has an egoist standpoint, it is merely impossible to make people not only realize but accept that they have an unearned advantage over others but learning about it is a starting point. As the author mentioned, we are not really taught about privilege. She says “I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group” – suggesting that when we are taught it, it is taught in a way that doesn’t put the blame to a system in place and therefore, does not actually address white privilege at all. I have realized that me being able to write about privilege is a privilege in itself. I am being taught about ways to use my unearned advantage to weaken these concealed privilege systems – something that not many people get to learn at a young age.

Ever since I was little, my dad always told me ‘never believe that it can’t happen to you, or someone you love’. He says this to me in circumstances like when he tells me to put on my seatbelt when I get in the car because ‘you never know when a car might crash’ or for me to eat my vegetables because ‘you never know when you may fall sick’ – however, I think it is relevant here too. My uncle is an African American man living in San Fransisco. He was simply on a run when a white cop came up to him and questioned him. He reached in his pocket for his ID but the cops thought that he was perhaps pulling out a gun and made him put his hands behind his back and kneel to the ground. Perhaps the cop had his own paradigms consisting of the expectations he had about black men – that they are ‘violent’ and ‘dangerous’. Realizing this has made me question the validity of paradigms. In this case, we can see that paradigms have the tendency to reference history for the sake of telling a linear story. As seen from this example, they are clearly not equally viable. Paradigms must be robust and have consistency – seeing that this failed to be either perhaps suggests that racial paradigms as such should be re-evaluated. This is not to say there isn’t usefulness in paradigms. Perhaps paradigms (especially shared ones) can be seen as generalizations and generalizations are ways we try to reduce uncertainty. Perhaps if the cop was uncertain as to whether or not my uncle had a gun,  he was confronted with his automatic assumption and his paradigms helped him guess. In this case, his paradigm was evidently wrong, but maybe it was better than not knowing at all? His paradigms may be flawed but who is to say mine isn’t? I think as we grow and society progresses, we all have to constantly rethink our prejudices and attitudes and attempt to view them from another person’s perspective. Regardless, I never thought something like this in progressive and contemporary San Francisco would exist but I now think ‘never believe that it can’t happen to you, or someone you love’. It angers me that I even have to think this. Frankly, I’m not sure what it makes me feel – but I do know that it makes me question my privileges.