"Every person is entitled to human rights without discrimination. The rights to equality and non-discrimination are cornerstones of human rights law. Yet in many parts of the world, discriminatory practices are still widespread, including racial, ethnic, religious and nationality based profiling, and incitement to hatred."
Let me start by saying this... I know this isn't my fight.
And you don't have to tell me twice how strange it might seem for a white woman in both SL and RL to be writing the blog post for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I get it.
It's kinda like when all those white folks got up in arms about Beyonce's Formation video, yeah? Like... it wasn't meant to speak to you... so no one really cares if you're offended.
And this post is not going to be trying to convince you that I understand the fight of a particular minority group, or ANY minority group, for that matter. I'm not going to try to equate my idiosyncrasies to your struggles and try to tell you that "I've been there" and that "I understand".
I haven't. And I don't. And I know that.
When I originally volunteered to write this post, I acknowledged it might be kind of awkward, and offered to step back if any of my sisters wanted to take on this challenge... because I feel like this is DEFINITELY something that needs covered...
I mean... my first post on this blog was about "Celebrate Your Name Week". If I'm going to talk about names as something that's important, I think Discrimination, Profiling, Hatred, and all of these other things that are currently heavily present in our world today need talked about as important. You can't really gloss over the issue and say, "Meh. Yeah, it's there... moving on..."
Despite the fact that that's what we as a country and as a people have been doing for years...
Like, ok. I'm gonna be honest... when I first started pledging Eta Sigma Delta... I felt suuuuuper awkward. None of my sisters ever made me feel that way, no... but coming in as one of two white women (at least in SL) into a primarily black organization... a primarily black community? I admittedly tried to move around on eggshells trying to make sure not to offend someone, or the community as a whole. I wanted to fit in with this family, with my sisters, but I also acknowledged that there were some things that were just always going to be different between us. Things I wouldn't understand.
My awkwardness was apparently so obvious to the people around me, that when my ex and I were speaking about pledging and about "Big Sister Names", he suggested "Big Sister Token".
It took me all of about 3 seconds to figure out he was suggesting I was the "token white girl".
And in a place like Second Life where you can change your appearance at the drop of a hat, I'd be lying to you if I said I'd never pulled out a blogger pack from Glam Affair and found a Jamaica tone I liked... because I didn't always like being the palest girl in the room. (Even though, in Jamaica, I still usually was.) Even in the pictures today, I opted for a darker skin tone than I would normally wear. (Despite the skin being SUPER cute.)
The thing of it is, though... that even as awkward as I felt, and still feel sometimes... that doesn't even BEGIN to compare to what other people go through. Like... I'm LUCKY that I only have to feel awkward... and that most of that awkwardness is completely created in my own mind. I know my sisters love me. I know they value the work that I do. And I know they see me as more than some pale-skinned avatar trying to penetrate their inner-circle. I know these things, so my awkwardness really isn't from the community around me. It's inside my own head.
Whereas there are people every day who have to deal with ACTUAL oppression from the community at large. There are people who are actually denied service for the color of their skin, whether folks want to admit that's the reason or not. There are people trying to find a job who's applications are immediately set aside for names that don't sound as 'normal' or 'wholesome' as Mary... Jane... Susan. There are people who genuinely fear for their lives and their safety because of who our president is and what kinds of people have proven to be his supporters.
This is REAL shit... and I'm sitting here in my pajamas at a computer talking about how I felt awkward cause my pale pixels are in a group of loving sisters that just happen to have darker pixels.
I'm incredibly fortunate that I have the ability to be 'awkward' for those kinds of petty reasons. That I don't have to worry about my life as a whole simply because of the color of skin I was born with.
But keep in mind... there are people who DO have to live with that fear.
I constantly try to keep my privilege in check... because yes, ladies and gents, white privilege is a thing... have you checked yours lately?
❤ Samineh (Tiviyah Resident) aka: Big Sister Enigmatic
