Sweat Pants and White Privilege

Well, before missiles are launched at me from my native Virginia for saying the words white and privilege in the same sentence, I ask you to sit back, bear with me, and open your mind.  I engaged earlier this week in a discussion about white privilege.  By white privilege, I mean those things granted to those of us who are caucasian simply by virtue of being a white person.  This, I have found personally, is very hard for we white people to grasp.  In the words of my family, it is simple  a case of “not knowing how you look until you have your picture taken.”

A prime example is sweat pants.  Lower your eyebrows and listen for a moment.  Privilege is as simple as perspective.  In the words of Sophia Petrillo, picture it a young, thin, active looking caucasian woman enters a bank wearing sweat pants.  Many of those she encounters will immediately assume that she is either coming from or on her way to her work-out, yoga, or zumba class.  Would those same people assume that an African-American Woman was on her way to work out?  I would like to think yes.  My experience, however, tells me that she would most likely be viewed as low class and uneducated.  Readers, this caricature is not acceptable.  While it is natural to assume things about people from the information you have available, be careful that your assumptions are not clouded by ridiculous stereotypes and outdated generalizations.  Freud said sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  Readers, sometimes sweat pants are just comfortable and the white girl is just as likely to be uneducated and low class as the african-american woman.  So, get out there and challenge the sweat pants in your own lives and begin to grow as people.