Race

50 privileges i have as a minority

January 9, 2014

Some people say I have “Minority Privilege.” Here is a list I complied of 50 Black Male Minority Privileges I’ve experienced in the twenty-four years of my life. Feel free to pick and choose from the ones you would like to possibly incorporate. There is enough to go around for everyone.

by Maxamillion (Source: maxamillionracism.tumblr.com)

My Black Male Minority Privilege

  1. My minority privilege allows me to be followed around stores, malls, and places of business.

  2. My minority privilege allows an assumption to be made that I don’t have any money for those stores, malls, and places of business I am at.

  3. My minority privilege allows me to seem “suspicious” by simply existing.

  4. My minority privilege allows an assumption to be made that I am inherently threatening.

  5. My minority privilege allows me to wake up in the morning, and re-think if I should wear that black hoodie (Which I always end up not wearing in fear of being shot by the police or a neighborhood watchmen).

  6. My minority privilege allows me to enter any mainstream book store in America, pick a random book off the shelf, and almost be assured none of the characters inside will look like me.

  7. My minority privilege allows me to flip through over 900 channels and only see actors that resemble myself—on two of those 900 channels.

  8. My minority privilege allows me to contemplate if my skin will effect me attaining a job.

  9. My minority privilege allows me to contemplate if my skin will effect me attaining a house.

  10. My minority privilege allowed me as a teenager to work at a company where out of 100 employees, the only 6 black people on the team were the janitors.

  11. My minority privilege allows people to be surprised at how “intelligent” I sound to them.

  12. My minority privilege allows certain people to have an urge to cross the street when they see me coming.

  13. My minority privilege allows certain people to lock their doors when I’m walking through a store parking lot, to get back into my car.

  14. My minority privilege allows people to look at me strange when I tell them I enjoy watching hockey.

  15. My minority privilege allows people to look at me strange when I tell them I like to read.

  16. My minority privilege allows people to be surprised when they find out I can read.

  17. My minority privilege allows the music store clerk to look at me odd when I ask where the Heavy Metal section is located.

  18. My minority privilege allows me to get pulled over by the police, not be ticketed or cited for anything, and have the officer end the conversation by saying, “Stay out of trouble.”

  19. My minority privilege allows certain women to clutch their hideous hand-bags when I step into an elevator.

  20. My minority privilege allows me to be reminded that I am not considered a “Real-American” as I’ve so often been told by apparent Real Americans.

  21. My minority privilege allows certain people to bypass me standing in line, and get helped for their “quick question” at the front desk.

  22. My minority privilege allows my white friends to ask if they can touch my hair, and reply with, “wow, I was not expecting it to be that soft!”

  23. My minority privilege allows me to enter a grocery store and be directed to the only shelf labeled just for me: Ethnic Hair Care.

  24. My minority privilege allows people to assume myself, and all my other black male friends, cousins, uncles, fathers, and descendants had, or have a big dick.

  25. My minority privilege allows people to believe its acceptable to ask, “so is what they say about all black guys true?”

  26. My minority privilege allows people to think they can insinuate their fantasy lengths to my private areas, casually ask me about it, and this all is somehow acceptable and OKAY.

  27. My minority privilege allowed me to get a discount on my auto-bill because the mechanic was simply impressed that a “young man like me” was in college.

  28. My minority privilege allowed a customer to walk up to me at work, and casually ask, “Didn’t Jamie Fox have a new CD come out? Is this song playing off his new CD?”

  29. My minority privilege allowed my white-class mates to pick me first for sports in gym class.

  30. My minority privilege allowed my white-class mates to be shocked and disappointed when they found out I was terrible at playing basketball.

  31. My minority privilege allowed my friend to tell me, her mother said she could date a black guy for fun, but would disown her if she ever considered marrying one.

  32. My minority privilege allows certain people to suspiciously come up to me and ask, if I know where they can get the “hook-up”, while making a smoking like motion with their hand.

  33. My minority privilege allows me to have trouble with the grocery self-check out scanner and have the clerk come over and politely say, “Yea sometimes these machines act up. Were you paying with food stamps?”

  34. My minority privilege allows me to know that people think the only way someone who looks like me could get into a nice college is either on a athletic scholarship, or by the privilege of being a minority.

  35. My minority privilege allows certain people to rather stand up on a full train, even though they see there is an open seat right next to me.

  36. My minority privilege allows people to be surprised when they find out I missed a call from my dad.

  37. My minority privilege affords me the option to just “go back to Africa” if I disagree with American polices or customs.

  38. My minority privilege allows people to believe, “I never met a black-guy like you before” is a compliment.

  39. My minority privilege allows me to know that when someone who looks like me is murdered by the police, there are no circumstances under which he didn’t deserve it.

  40. My minority privilege allowed me to be warned when I stayed in Alabama, never go into this specific county because, “people like us don’t come back.”

  41. My minority privilege affords my skin and hair, to be a platform so that others can feel develop self-esteem in opposition to it.

  42. My minority privilege taught me that black people never made any contributions to the world.

  43. My minority privilege taught me that apparently no one other than Europeans, ever made any contribution to the world.

  44. My minority privilege allowed one week out of February in school, to be dedicated to the history and values of people who resemble my self.

  45. My minority privilege allowed 24 years of my life, to be dedicated to the history and values of people who do not resemble my self.

  46. My minority privilege allows me to have credibility when it comes to issues of race in a discussion.

  47. My minority privilege allows me the ability to have no credibility when it comes to all other issues in a discussion— other than race.

  48. My minority privilege affords me the ability to regularly see one black woman out of twenty, walk down the runway of a global industry that claims to represent beauty.

  49. My minority privilege taught me that a lot of people feel its acceptable to invalidate my pain as a young black male and tell me, “well life isn’t fair”.

  50. My minority privilege taught me that there is no me, but rather one part of the collective thought and motion—of the monolithic, black male organism.

    -Maxamillion 

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