Y8 D206

Travel day. Have a little under 2 hours until my car is here. Need to shower, throw in toiletries. I am not looking forward to traveling in December. Tourists. Rookies. Children. Last one of the year. I get through this and I am done thankfully. I can do it.

We did a whole lot of nothing yesterday. I went out in the morning and did grocery shopping but other than that, it was a quiet day. I did have an adventure in the morning while I was shopping. I wrote about it on the social medias and thought I would just repost it here:

What to know what white privilege is? Sit back and listen to a tale...

I just went into a grocery store (roughly 6am on a Saturday). I am the only one in there. I'm wearing a big coat and a hat covering the front part of my face.

As I walk through the door, the security sensor went off. I looked around and the employee nearest the door (older white male) looked up at me. I realized I had something in my pocket from another store that might have a tag on it. I said this to him and he laughed. His response:

"Well I wasn't too worried about it anyway."

This. This is white privilege.

I did my shopping and approached the register. The white woman at the register joked with me about it going off and that it would probably do it when I left. Not "did I have anything in my pockets", not a wary eyed silent treatment. No instead it was joking and smiling that the security alarm was about to go off again when I left.

If my skin color had been any different this would have played out much differently. MUCH different. This wouldn't have been a funny light hearted experience. I would have been followed around the store. I would have been stopped on my way out. I got a wave and a come back again.

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not - if you're white like me, you have this privilege. You have the ability to take things like security alarms going off for granted. Not everyone does. Remember that. We need to work together to do what we can to make sure everyone has this kind of experience. They need to come home from the store with a funny story and not in handcuffs. Or worse, a body bag.

(Note - if any of you think I am exaggerating at how this could have played out for other races, you have serious white privilege and really need to check it. Leave your bubble and recognize what's going on around you.)

So yeah, that happened. B made peppers for dinner. Haven't had those in a while. I went to bed around 8:30, fell asleep around 9. Now time to shower.