I am a a cisgender, pansexual, white, middle class female. I am able to pass in society without having to deal with my existence being questioned. My gender is apparent to most people, I do not have to deal with race if I choose not to, and I can enjoy privileges based on my ascribed status. I am fat, though I have seen how I am treated change with how my body changes.

I read a blog post by Katie at kataphatic.wordpress.com that discussed Linda Bacon’s paper based on her keynote speech to NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance). In the post, Katie quotes Linda Bacon: “The cultural perception of fat bodies as “wrong” hurts those of us in the “right” bodies too. … Inequity hurts the oppressor as well as the victim.”

This is exactly the reason why I discuss privilege, even while not in a minority groups. Even if my gender is not immediately questioned based on my appearance, it is a simplistic cultural artifact that needs to be questioned. And, it needs to be questioned by those that appear and/or are cisgender, and not just those that live publicly and appearance wise as genderqueer. Those that are living in white bodies should be questioning why those in non white bodies do not share the same privileges and access to resources as we do. Those of us in male bodies should be questioning why they have advantages that are not afforded to those in female bodies. Those of us in thin bodies should question why we have such an obsession with thinness and weight, and how it is to the detriment of all people (especially women) in society.

Because oppression hurts all of us. Rigid roles based on ascribed status and appearance limit everyone. This is not meant to minimize the daily struggles that one goes through as a person who has an appearance that is not the “average” or expected, but as a reminder that the struggle is not limited to those who outwardly express it. We must all question the status quo, even if we firmly fit within it.

(How does this relate to sex? The more comfortable one is with their body and identity, the better their sex lives And, the ability to play with these concepts within sex and a sexual/romantic relationship can be a safer space to learn more about them.)

This is a very ethnocentric viewpoint, in that I am specifically speaking about American culture in the United States.

1) All white people are racist.
1a)Racism is not a dichotomous category, its not are you racist or are you not. Racism is a continuum, between more racist and less racist. By giving up the idea that someone can be “not racist,” everyone is able to examine why they might be racist, and where they fall on that spectrum. By continuing to use the “racist/not racist” dichotomy, one does not examine what things they are doing that might be a result of growing up in the institutional racism system.

2) Racism is institutional, and systemic.

3) White people are the racist ones in the American system, because white people have the current, and historical power.

4) Other races may have prejudices against other races, however, without the institutional power, they are not “racist.” Racism= prejudice + power.

5) Class has a lot to do with it. There are some things that I think are the result of socioeconomic. However, minorities are overrepresented in lower classes, and underrepresented in upper classes. This is because of institutional racism.
5a) This was rebutted by using “demographic inertia” as a cause of the educational/income gap among minorities. As such demographic inertia was caused by actual racist practices, I still count this among institutional racism.
5ai)In addition, there are several instances where black people are given worse interest rates in loans, specifically car and home loans, so that even with the same credit and income, they cannot afford as much as a white person with the same credit and income, due to higher interest rates.
5aii)There are also many instances of real estate agents showing black people and white people different homes, even with the same pre-approved mortgage amount. These are examples of how institutional racism perpetuates in society.

6) Insinuating that black people are poor (or, more specifically, poor black people are poor) because they are lazy is insulting. By saying that the reason why poor people are poor is because they do not work hard enough, you are saying that white people do work hard enough, which is not necessarily the same thing. Poor blacks have to work much harder to achieve the same levels of prosperity as whites.

There are barriers that many people have to overcome. Until the same amount of effort produces the same results for all races, there is institutional racism.

7) White privilege is an extension of the institutional racism in society. This might be mediated by other ways you are disadvantaged, and there are other ways in which you are privileged (say, cisgender privilege, educational privilege, shape privilege), it does not negate the fact that if you are white, you carry privilege on the basis of that race.