I Am The Problem.
As a fifty-seven-year-old college-educated white male from an upper-middle-class family, I have had all of the advantages in my life. I freely admit this is true. I went to a series of good schools, didn’t have to worry if I saw a police car, didn’t have any gang violence in my child-hood neighborhoods. Everywhere I lived, I felt safe to go out at night.
I was completely oblivious that it was possible not to live like I did until I was well into high school. I was so sheltered and ignorant that it never occurred to me that having a different color skin or parents that weren’t college-educated professionals could make a difference in how you lived. It was during high school that I made friends that were not part of my safe little world. Even then, it took several years to break through my myopia. Even when I saw that there were differences, I didn’t actually see the differences. This lack of vision is I think the biggest problem for many people in similar positions, they see past or through what is happening in front of them.
So, why am I writing this article? To make myself feel better? Oh, hell no, if anything digging up these memories has made me feel worse. Remembering what a complete ass I was until I was in my late thirties. I am writing this to say to all of the people in the position where I was and am. Stop lying to yourself. It doesn’t matter how “woke,” you think you are, how…
