White Woman Privileges in Interracial Friendship
Whenever I pick up my son at school, his friend’s mom and I make it a point to find one another. We’re not just friends because our kids go to school together. We have been good friends for years, and were even pregnant together. We have a lot of things in common. Our kids’ dads are affiliated through work stuff, we live in the same community, and we have similar views and beliefs on a lot of things regarding child rearing, work-life balance, family, and faith. She is a white lady, but she’s really one of the best friends I have ever had and I am thankful for her in so many ways. I hate that race comes to play at all when I think about our lives, whether intersected as friends or mothers of kids in the community we live and raise them in. Because in life there are always exceptions to things; my relationship and friendship with this person is something I would consider to be an anomaly. She’s very loyal, sweet, and genuine.
I don’t feel that way about a lot of white women, and really, with good reason. Most white women will be quick to smile and compliment you but then they’ll be even quicker to throw your ass under the bus if it’s going to keep things in order on the social food chain of power and privilege.
It’s not an opinion. It’s not bitterness. It’s not resentment. It’s fact. It’s white feminism at its “well-oiled machine”-like workings at its finest.
