
[Image from http://www.literateape.com/blog/2016/12/19/i-fully-acknowledge-my-white-privilege-now-what]
This is Part 2 of my three-part series on race in Paganism
...PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.
I am working on a blog about race in Paganism, so I am posting this guest column by Elena Gutierrez. Elena is a mixed-race Latina, Tarascan (native Mexican), white young woman in the Midwest.
I am drowning in a sea of white. I am not at an actual sea with light colored sands and receding waves, but rather, the extravagant dining hall my grandparents eat at every night. I am ‘blessed’ with the opportunity to eat in the same dining hall when I go to visit them. The table cloths are of thick material and they are so white you would think they are brand new, straight from the package, rather than washed after each use from meal times. Maybe they are brand new. It would only make sense based on where they live. My grandparents, on my mother’s side, live in a retirement villa. They have to ask us in advance when we schedule a visit, if we would like to stay for dinner, if we respond yes, they have to hurry to make reservations. They are my white grandparents. I am drowning in a white sea that is made up of all the retired masters of their career fields. It is a white population who sit at their white tables with their white pearls hanging from their necks smiling with their expensive fake white teeth.
...Maybe it was naïve of me, but it never occurred to me before this morning that a person could be a racist feminist.
Personally, I find all forms of oppression and bullying equally abhorrent. I believe all humans (all sentient life, really) deserve love and respect from the beginning to the end of their lives, no matter what they look like, who they love, how much they have, what language they speak, or what they believe.
...A comparison is made between Europe's current refugee crisis and the moral failings of a past age. Women in Japan struggle to achieve equality in the workplace. And the nature of "white privilege" is examined and explained. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on political and societal news from around the globe! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!