Many things from our class on Tuesday stuck with me, however one of the more powerful ideas that hit me was the "I just don't feel like dealing with the race issue right now". As a person who never has to worry about race I am realizing how mindless I have been about the " race issue". Yes, I am always an always an advocate against prejudice and racism, however, I never completely realized how easy it is for me to turn on and off my dealing with and thinking about these issues. My first reaction to this realization was guilt and anger against myself, but as we discussed on Tuesday, feeling guilty is not helping the issue. I am dedicating myself to a life long awareness of this, and I want to learn to be more mindful of my "white power", which I hate even saying, and use it for change.

My experience with privilege is very similar to Leah's experience growing up. I never went through the extremes of living in the projects or going to bed hungry or even being abused, but my life has not been easy. I saw a lot of abuse between my parents when I was a child and lost my father to suicide because of his battle with drugs and alcohol, and we didn't always have money; However, I never felt under privileged and I have many great memories as well. I have felt guilty about feeling upset about things in my life because I know there are people out there who have to deal with a lot more than I could ever imagine. Privilege is something that I definitely feel that I have and it has always caused a confusing dichotomy with the hard things in my life. I think a lot of people especially white people feel this way, I always have in the back of my mind even with my struggles now, that at the end of the day I am so blessed and privileged, and i do not need to complain about a thing. This week with the movie and class discussion is only making me feel more strongly of how privileged I actually am.