I am sorry that the color of my skin is white and I have a penis, that people like me are the cause of pretty much every problem in our society and our world. I am sorry that there are white men out there that don't like people of color, that there are white men out there who don't like homosexuals. I'm sorry that there are white men out there that are sexists.
I just want to remind everyone without white skin and a penis that I don't hate you. I don't think you are any less than I am.
But please, don't think that you are better than me because of bigoted white guys that do and say prejudiced things. They don't speak for all of us.
A recent Herald opinion piece ("Catching hell in Providence," April 14) mentioned that white men didn't understand prejudice because they haven't experienced it.
I do not understand what prejudice means to women, homosexuals or people of color because I am not one. But I have been stereotyped ever since I can remember.
A couple of examples: Walking through my dorm last week, I overheard a conversation involving some students of color who were "sick of fucking white people."
On Sept. 11, 2001, a large group of Middle Eastern students at my high school gathered in the rotunda cheering as the towers fell. The student brawl that ensued ensured that the remaining years at my western Canadian school, about one-third white and one-third Middle Eastern, would brim with racial tension.
And, of course, there are comments like those in another recent Herald piece ("Challenging Simmons and the Rainbow Coalition," April 19), that I'm a "white liberal' who, "regardless of what (Ruth Simmons) does, will defend her as their only black friend."
One major prejudice against me is the assumption neither I nor my ancestors have ever been racialized, but that my history doesn't allow me to understand being on the short end of bigotry.
Pardon me if I don't think my Protestant Irish and German Jewish ancestors were privileged. Anyone who knows even the most vague American and European history knows that my ancestors were stereotyped by the same bigots who oppressed everyone else.
But say my ancestors had been Ku Klux Klan members, or a bunch of racist slave owners. Then hate my ancestors. Don't hate me. Don't indict me for murders that were committed by people that we mutually agree are evil just because I have the misfortune of their genes.
I don't know whether President Simmons is the new face of white supremacy. I hope not. But that column sounded to me more like a couple of writers who view this world simply as black and white. The most important thing about Ruth Simmons being president of Brown should not be that she is black and has a vagina. But it is apparently to people of all colors, creeds and sexes, and not just white guys.
Just like the old white guys threw all minorities under labels like "nigger" and "fag," white guys are now labelled "bigot." It's a dangerous cycle. I feel as if some people look at me and my white skin and automatically assume that everything is fine and dandy in my life, that I am a racist, a sexist or a homophobe. Just because someone is a victim doesn't mean they can't victimize someone else.
Carman McNary '08 doesn't hate.
