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My White Privilege Thread Time...
As a white dude of Italian & Hungarian ethnic heritage who was born & raised in the dynamic inner-city Upper Haight Ashbury & Fillmore neighborhoods of San Francisco, my cultural identity was neither Italian nor Hungarian because my main 1/
As a white dude of Italian & Hungarian ethnic heritage who was born & raised in the dynamic inner-city Upper Haight Ashbury & Fillmore neighborhoods of San Francisco, my cultural identity was neither Italian nor Hungarian because my main 1/
influences were my neighborhood, which was mainly Black & Brown families. My friend circle was predominantly Black & brown, & being honest, the closest thing to a cultural identity was being a 1980’s & 1990’s inner-city San Franciscan, which was definitely unique, diverse 2/
& difficult to pigeonhole or categorize. My experiences up until around age 23 when I finally left SF for San Diego for undergrad were as the “minority” in most spaces I inhabited (school, neighborhood, athletic teams), and that was something I was comfortable with & I rarely 3/
thought about the privileges bestowed upon me in society by "virtue" of being born a cis-hetero white male. I was the poorest kid of our core friend groups, & I was raised by a strong single mother who exposed me to Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, & many other Radical 4/
Black feminists. Of course, I was a knucklehead who did not take heed to these readings until much later in life. The thing is even though I was the poorest kid in our friend group, one of the only white dudes in the group, I experienced the privileges of “whiteness” in both 5/
subtle & unsubtle ways. I was often asked to be the “DWD” (designated white driver) when we were young adults to avoid being pulled over or harassed by the police. It mostly worked, but once the neighborhood patrols started to know who I was, I was treated as guilty by 6/
association. 1 time (pun intended), we were stopped on Divisadero & Hayes in front of Popeye’s on the corner & the police threw us all down on the curb, & the lead officer said “you stand out over here hanging with these thugs” & then he proceeded to take a bag of Skittles out 7/
& said “you got the rocks in here? Do they have you doing the driving and holding the rocks?” Ironically, I was probably the most troubled of all of us who they were harassing, and most likely to of that group to be doing something “shady” even though none of us were doing 8/
anything wrong. When I finally “got my act together,” made a little money as a service technician for Pacific Bell (a job that I was not fully qualified for at age 20, but that very likely was given to me due to being a white male); I decided to use my intellect & potential to 9/
pursue a degree in clinical psychology. During undergrad, I was often met with odd looks from many of my white peers in the lecture halls. My style was Jordan’s, Avirex leather jackets, lots of Coogi, and it was all authentic to me. I was not trying to be something that I was 10/
not, I was just being me, I was not “going through a phase” or “trying to act Black” (some of the many insulting things I heard from mostly privileged, suburban white kids); yet, even though I stuck out like a sore thumb in these educational spaces, I was still begrudgingly 11/
given space at the institution because I am a white male my academic resume was undeniable. Further, I was often given second chances after falling down & making mistakes because I am a white male. Many of my friends who made similar, or even lesser mistakes, were not given 12/
the same breaks or opportunities I was given after stumbling, & I cannot help but feel the difference maker was my white privilege. Did I have to worry about the police harassing me? No! Did I have to worry about being followed around in the grocery or department stores when 13/
were in middle & high school? No, as a matter of fact I was the kid that was stealing from the store the most & I took full advantage of the attention given to my friends while I pilfered things with impunity. I have made a conscious decision to incorporate critical 14/
consciousness & intersectional multicultural awareness into my work as a professor & a psychologist. Yet, even with all of my training, experience, & knowledge, I still have my blind spots & recognize the need to be humble, listen, learn, & “unlearn” toxic things that are 15/
difficult to deny due to the programming received in a toxically individualist, misogynistic, patriarchical, white supremacist, racist society that has & continues to bestow unearned privileges on me just because I was born a white, cis-hetero, male. I challenge all white 16/
comrades to use their white privilege to challenge, fight, & stand up against social injustice & oppressive exploitation in all of its ugly forms; especially racism, capitalism, heterosexism, homo & trans-phobia, classism, ableism, imperialism, & the police & prison-industrial 17
complex. Thanks for reading & listening to my mini Ted Talk. I appreciate you taking the time to read a snippet of my story & personal growth. All constructive feedback is welcome. Namaste. 
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