Words from an interviewee:
My margin of error was massive growing up.
A U.S. without racism is literally my experience in the world. I have never ever felt that I was being the target of any sort of racism at all. I’ve never walked into a room and felt like I didn’t belong there. I never lacked for growing up seeing people who look like me in media and TV as the protagonist of the story. I’m a white middle-aged American man. When I started doing consulting someone asked me, “How do you know what to say? How do you know the answers to these problems?” I said, “Well I really don’t, but I say it with the confidence of a middle-aged white guy and that seems to work.”
I asked him if he believes there is racism in the U.S., he responded:
Oh, a thousand percent, but it’s not directed at me. I have two siblings adopted from South America and growing up they got it quite a bit. Racism is alive and well. I experienced it through them.
I have an insane level of confidence. I often, you know, I have said the gap between my capabilities and my confidence level is massive. I recognize this is what I’ve been taught my whole life: I can be and do anything. I’ve seen people who look like me be and do anything. So, of course I believe that. When Wonder Woman came out, for instance, I saw a tweet a woman said something about “I just saw Wonder Woman. I feel like I can take on the world and do anything. Is this the way men feel all the time?” It’s like, kinda. This is a conversation, mind you, it’s not something I would probably, you know, share in a large gathering of people, but when I sit and think about it, yeah. This is kind of, I think, how most white guys think.
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