and that knowledge make me sick inside. But that doesn’t change jock shit.

For those of you who don’t know who the racist, murdering, piece of shit George Zimmerman is- here’s the story.

Now I would never, and have never, and will never, follow a Black kid around cause he’s “suspicious” and then shoot him. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t benefit from the people that do. White privilege means I don’t have to do anything to benefit from racism. It requires no outward act on my part. I can be as much of anti-racist ally to POC that I want. It doesn’t erase the benefit I receive.

And one of those benefits is that I am more likely to be believed by people in authority when the other side of the story is coming from a person of color (or in this case, no side of the story cause Zimmerman shot him dead). I’m more likely to be believed even if I have a history of violent behavior, as Zimmerman did. I am more likely to be believed even if there had been previous complaints about my overzealous activities as neighborhood watch captain, as there were against Zimmerman. And the cops are more likely to try and turn witnesses in my favor, even when their statements and experience of the crime says I am guilty as fuck, as cops did for Zimmerman.

That’s not all though. I mean I am really never gonna act on that privilege, but the violence that Zimmerman and the cops protecting him from justice and the entire criminal justice system, ect… enact on people of color devalues their lives. A Black man or woman is worth less than I am. I don’t have to like it. But I benefit from it. I benefit by higher wages, better access to schools, less government interference in my personal life (and I know from government interference- hello poverty!) more protection from criminals (unless those criminals are white men- then I’m just a slut who was asking for it). I don’t have to want any of these benefits, but I get them. And I get them because the lives of people of color are worth less than mine.

And that is how all of us white folks are George Zimmerman, whether we are gun-toting, shit face crackers in the south or “nice” progressive white folks in the PNW.