RACE
Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race is a Privileged Question
One that many Black people are tired of answering
"Why does everything have to be about race," is a question White people often pose to Black people, practically echoing from their lofty position of privilege. For those untouched by racism, it may be easy to dismiss the topic, to roll their eyes at any mention of race or racism. However, for Black Americans who find themselves living under an ever-present cloud of racial disparities, disillusionment is a luxury, one they cannot afford. Inequities in healthcare, housing, education, and employment expose a two-tiered system of opportunity. As demonstrated by the Pew Research Center's 2021 study, "the typical White household had 9.2 times as much wealth as the typical Black household." Those who ask this question either intentionally ignore the research shedding light on these disparities or feign ignorance to maintain the status quo, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
Just as fifth graders often grapple with the order of operations in math class— parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction, fondly remembered by the acronym PEMDAS, many White people stumble over the nuanced relationship between race and racism. Rather than addressing racism as a deeply…
