In what nuanced ways did you NOT realize you had white privilege?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really freaks me out as a POC when I see white people open packages and eat things or give things to their kids to eat or to play with in stores BEFORE they pay for them. Doing that could so easily get me arrested.

Most white people don't do that.

and you can't get arrested unless you step outside of the store without paying, TROLL

[Anonymous]

Before the pandemic, I went in to a store and got a phone call while browsing. Totally distracted, I walked out to the store without paying. Upon realization, I went back in and told the store associate what I had done and returned the items. She kind of laughed and said oh yeah! You set off the alarm.

I literally walked out of a store without paying and set off an alarm and no one did anything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really freaks me out as a POC when I see white people open packages and eat things or give things to their kids to eat or to play with in stores BEFORE they pay for them. Doing that could so easily get me arrested.

Most white people don't do that.

and you can't get arrested unless you step outside of the store without paying, TROLL

+1. As soon as white women start to account for 50%+ of murders and violent crime, I’ll start to care.

[Anonymous]

Not black, not white, but have immigrant parents. This Patriot Act episode really hit home much my parents, who came here to America in the late 60s, had the privilege of benefiting from the hard work (and violence, and suffering, and courage) of those involved in the Civil Rights Movement. They got to America (and I, as their child) were given chances directly because of Black America. It had not really occurred to me, but I am more aware of that privilege now.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the receipt-thing as well as opening a package and eating from it before I pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before the pandemic, I went in to a store and got a phone call while browsing. Totally distracted, I walked out to the store without paying. Upon realization, I went back in and told the store associate what I had done and returned the items. She kind of laughed and said oh yeah! You set off the alarm.

I literally walked out of a store without paying and set off an alarm and no one did anything!

Similar issue for me. I was checking out after a hair appointment and they'd recommended products. I wanted some and didn't want others - then my daughter called me in a panic about something while I was paying and two days later when I went to wash my hair I looked at the products I'd gotten, then looked at my receipt and realized I hadn't paid for one. I brought it back that day after work and told them "I accidentally walked out with this - but I used it and liked it, so can I pay you and keep it? I'm so sorry for accidentally stealing!" and we all had a nice laugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine is similar -- I've brought my own shopping bag into stores, strolled around putting a few groceries in it, and then gone to the checkout and emptied it onto the conveyor belt. Just to avoid dragging around a basket.

Pure white privilege. I've stopped doing it.

I do that too and I am asian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is similar -- I've brought my own shopping bag into stores, strolled around putting a few groceries in it, and then gone to the checkout and emptied it onto the conveyor belt. Just to avoid dragging around a basket.

Pure white privilege. I've stopped doing it.

I do that too and I am asian

NP. I never do that. I’d be scared of someone accusing me of stealing.

- white woman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is similar -- I've brought my own shopping bag into stores, strolled around putting a few groceries in it, and then gone to the checkout and emptied it onto the conveyor belt. Just to avoid dragging around a basket.

Pure white privilege. I've stopped doing it.

I do that too and I am asian

I do it too, though I'm half white, half Asian (I look "ethnicy"). But I don't do this nonchalantly - I am showy about scrunching up my bag after emptying it, or holding it upside down, to point out "see my bag is totally empty, I've taken nothing."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really freaks me out as a POC when I see white people open packages and eat things or give things to their kids to eat or to play with in stores BEFORE they pay for them. Doing that could so easily get me arrested.

I am white, and I view this as stealing no matter what your race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really freaks me out as a POC when I see white people open packages and eat things or give things to their kids to eat or to play with in stores BEFORE they pay for them. Doing that could so easily get me arrested.

I am white, and I view this as stealing no matter what your race.

I’m white, and I have so many memories of my mom doing this with me when I was a kid, usually with a box of animal crackers. I rarely bring my kids to the grocery store with me, but have done this with them in a pinch, and it’s such white privilege.

Same with bringing my own bag and putting things in it, rather than getting a basket. Or not needing a receipt. Or running alone and not worrying about getting shot (raped, maybe, but not shot). Or patients not assuming I’m a janitor (the nurse thing, though, that was real). Or expecting that when I ask for help in a store, I’ll get it, no questions asked.

[Anonymous]

I bought a hoodie at American Apparel and they forgot to take the security sensor off; it was hidden under the hood and I didn’t even notice it until weeks or months later when I set off an alarm in a different store. I laughed and asked the sales associates if they could take it off for me, and they did with no questions asked. They still might have thought that I stole the hoodie, but A) they took the sensor off and we all joked about it and B) I wasn’t for a second embarrassed or ashamed to be caught with the sensor on me; at the time it didn’t really even cross my mind how bad it looked for me. It was only upon reflection later that the thought occurred that it could have gone very very differently and probably would have if I wasn’t white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can literally walk into most any store and people don't wonder what I'm doing there.

White lady in her 40s here who has always avoided high end stores because I feel like I don’t belong. Like I would need to buy a special outfit just for shopping so I don’t feel like an outcast in the store.

[Anonymous]

I kind of feel like we’re now supposed to identify any interaction in which we are treated with basic human decency as “White privilege”. Because isn’t that kind of it in a nutshell?

[Anonymous]

OMG so many things. Being pulled over for a traffic stop and not ever once thinking I might die but being upset over the ticket. Wandering around in a store with no one following me. They ask me politely and eagerly when I enter if I need anything if I say no I'm just browsing they leave me alone. Being favored in a job interview. Never having a problem finding a place to live if I have the money. Being more concerned about what I wear in terms of how it makes me look good not if someone will think I'm a hoodlum. There are probably a thousand other examples that I'm completely unaware of because of white privilege. I know people are sick and tired of hearing about white privilege but it exists and I do know what that is like.