Letter to the Editor

Editor:

The attitudes regarding race, formed over the past 400 years, die slowly and with lots of resistance. An example of resistance is the idea of white privilege. “I am not privileged,” I say. “Haven’t I worked hard to secure what I have?” Yet I have discovered the privileges of white people like me are subtle, silent, hidden, deceiving. Usually, I’m not aware of my privilege.

As a white American and a person who marched in Selma with Dr. King, I cannot be completely free of racism. It is a part of American culture. I grew up with an unspoken but pervasive attitude that Blacks were somehow inferior, even dangerous. I was raised in a Christian home and became a Lutheran pastor. I did not realize that being white allowed me to walk to a movie while someone who was Black was suspect, questioned or even refused. In my heart, that is just the way life is. Jon Stewart said on The View (June 29, 2020) that “fish don’t know that they are wet.” That is true for me when it comes to my experience of white privilege.

I cannot be outraged that some police dishonor and even kill Black people. Maybe their behavior and the attitudes should instead cause me to pause and look deep into myself. Because, in the deepest place that is me, I have that same disease.

I cannot simply think about the reality of white privilege. I need to ponder on it.

Don Koepke Mutual 15 Letters to the Editor must include your name, Mutual number and phone number, and be emailed to rutho_news@lwsb.com or typed and delivered to the LW Weekly office in the Amphitheater Building Letters must be of general interest to the community and may contain opinions, suggestions, compliments and complaints without being scurrilous, libelous, defamatory, repetitive or otherwise inappropriate. The names of individual employees, titles and/or departments will not be permitted in letters that could adversely impact any Foundation employee directly or indirectly.

Shareholders may only have one letter published per month.