I am a white, middle class man. I'm gay, so I know what it is like to experience discrimination. I have parented children of colour & worked to advance the cause of oppressed people for decades. I do not know what it is like to be black, or Roma, or disabled, or a Traveller. https://twitter.com/barrymward/status/1289926371951562753

I was street homeless at 17. But I do not know or really understand what it was like to grow up in poverty. I have had some experiences that might give me some small insight, but my privelege means I cannot know or fully understand that experience.

I can work to develop my understanding and my empathy,as I believe we all should. But I can only do that by listening, by discarding any notion that I understand, and instead truly listening intently to what people from those communities have to say about THEIR experience.

They are the experts in their expereince, not me. Not any other. I can gain some insight, some understanding if I listen to them and if I am open to being educated by them.

It is in no way an insult to name the obvious fact that our privelege limits our our understanding of what it is like to have none. We cannot truly understand what it is like to have lived a life that is far removed from our own experience. Surely that is self evident?

Listen. Let go of the notion that owning your privelege is some sort of admission of guilt. Instead let it be the beginning of a journey to a new level of understanding. Don't be threatened by it. Be excited by it, by the new experiences and understanding it can bring.

The people you will truly meet and come to know. The insights into other lives & experiences they will generously offer you if you can be truly open to accepting them. The power and beauty and humanity you will see. Listen. It will be worth it. You have more to gain than to lose

Many days it feels like the world is gone to shit. It isn't, yet. People are mostly loving and decent and kind. Humanity is extraordinary. But when we allow division and distrust to alienate us from each other, when we close our minds and our hearts to each other, we all lose.

We don't have to do that. We can chose not to. We can listen to and learn from each other. When we do that, we will meet in our shared humanity. Beyond all our differences, that is what connects us. Anything truly good that we do, individually or collectively, flows from that.

Lastly, this thread is not intended as an attack on, or a rebuke of, anyone. Take from it what you will, whatever makes sense or connects with you. Much love.