I am aware of my privilege but I don't fully understand it

I read a really interesting article from @shawnamawna about her neighbour and the way he wanted to save her from her origins. In his small world he interpreted the best way to be in life was white, and christian, and whilst there's nothing wrong with that in itself; trying to convert others to his way of life is unfair to the identity of others. Identity is a big thing for some people, and stripping them away from that is essentially saying that they don't exist. In my opinion, allowing people to be who they are and respecting them for it is the best thing that you can do. Let people be who they are.

Now I read her article and I thought to myself, "Wow, I don't think anyone would get away with this in the UK" but there was a niggling voice in the back of my head telling me that was my whiteness speaking. I am aware that just being born white affords me certain privileges in this country. With brexit on the horizon, no one will tell me to fuck off back to my own country, the NHS will never question my country of origin, and people will never automatically distrust me. Our current government in the UK, with their blame politics have essentially shifted the spotlight from themselves onto minorities and immigrants. When they reduce a further [x] billion from our healthcare budget they then tell us that immigrants are putting stress on the NHS with their health tourism and using our services illegally.

I was always taught to respect people of everywhere. Since I've found my own identity I really understand how important it is for others to have their identity shine through, be that white, black, orange, yellow or space alien from the planet fandango; the point is that allowing people to shine through in their own way is the best thing you can do for another person.

I see the carnage unfold all over the world, because it's a plague that's infecting the entire western hemisphere; ring wing populism, alt right, a simmering contempt for any difference in the world. They focus on the one or two extremists and tar the entire rest with the same wide-stroked brush. It's a form of tribalism that I don't quite understand, a strange-backwardness that doesn't take into account the years of devastation we cause around the world yet expect others countries to treat us with fairness and humility when our soldiers have killed their entire families.

I'll never understand what it's like to be different than white, though. I've never had someone pray for my soul; I've never been stalked whilst I go into a supermarket because the colour of my skin tars me as a thief, and I've never ever been routinely stopped by the police just because I may be a terrorist. The whole entire joke of this is that our western nations with white leaders are the biggest warmongers worldwide, so if anyone should be routinely stopped it should be us. I go about my life relatively uninterrupted and stress free. People don't threaten me, neither do I threaten them.

So when I say that I don't understand it, I really don't. I can't. I will never be able to. I am white. People treat me differently. I can make myself aware; read stories from others as victims of prejudice, shout loudly for the minority vote, and put myself in the shoes of victims of race crime. I can try and make myself as wholly aware as I can to make others feel at ease around me, but I'll never experience it first hand. I'll never experience randoms shouting at me, telling me to fuck off back to my own country, I'll never experience racial profiling by authorities, I'll never be refused a job based on my name or skin colour, and I'll never be scared to walk around freely around my own community.

This is what my other white brethren don't understand. When you say that, "It can't be true because it doesn't happen to me" then you are feeding into the line that there's nothing wrong with this status quo when there wholly is. I know, I know, it's hard to think outside of your own circle; took me a good few years to do it myself, to understand that my experience of the world isn't actually the normal, that actually, my worldview is but a small needle in a giant haystack, that there are billions of others with wildly different perceptions and experiences, and saying that mine is the best one is ignorant and does a disservice to the many other people out there. You need to get out a bit more and experience the world. It was tough learning that the world didn't revolve around me.

This is where we've went wrong. I get called out for being an apologist, but I'm not -- I tell it as I see it; we are too wrapped up in our cosy echo chambers on Facebook, on the Internet, in life, to better understand that our inside world is minuscule, our circles are pin-like, and our wave of influence is small in comparison to the wide world out there. It's big, it's nasty, and it's wildly different from you, me, and everyone else. Expand those boundaries, live a little, and try and experience life from someone else for a change instead of reading sensational headlines and getting worked up about something that can be rationalised in your mind with a little understanding.

Let's try to understand a little better :)

Live long, and prosper!