“The test results said, ‘You are 98% privileged.’ They stared back at me like a red blinking light. The results shouldn’t have been a surprise. I’m white, heterosexual, and was raised by two white, heterosexual parents.”
‘Their 10-year-old son went out for a bike ride. Suddenly, police were knocking on their door after reports a black man was trying to break into a house.’: Woman asks others to ‘use your privilege for good’
‘Maybe her shorts are too short, her jeans too tight. Maybe you think her dress is too revealing. What you don’t see is a woman falling apart.’: Woman urges ‘we are all just trying to do our best’
“You deem her unworthy before she even has the chance to speak for herself. She’s not a woman who finally found the courage to be who she is, dress how she wants, stand up for what she believes in. Trying not to let the coldness and cruelty of this world break her. Instead, she gets labeled. Simply because she just exists.”
‘I was just pulled over, for no reason.’ He’s black, I’m white. My heart raced. We get the CRAZIEST looks.’: White woman dating black man says ‘it’s an honor he’d choose to be with me, it blows me away’
“‘How many white women have you actually dated?’ I asked. ‘None. That makes you like…a pioneer. lol.’ I read his response, a knot forming in my stomach. ‘I’ve never really trusted or felt safe around white people.’ He’s HUGE, towering over my 5-foot figure. We get the CRAZIEST looks when we’re with our kids. His are biracial, my youngest is white white WHITE. I imagine people wondering if I cheated on him.”
‘What grade is your son in?,’ a mom at the gym asked. ‘My daughter is in 4th,’ I replied.
“My daughter is herself, and for now, prefers clothes in the boy’s section at Old Navy.”
GRIPPING: Photographer captures ‘day in the life’ of a family living in a homeless shelter
“Families are families, they function in much the same ways regardless of where you find them. In the end we are all just trying our best.”
