Episode 046 | An honest conversation about white privilege during Black History Month

It is Black History month here in the UK so we have decided to have a very honest discussion around white privilege. Recently the comedian, Chelsea Handler, released a documentary on Netflix entitled “Hello, Privilege, It’s Me, Chelsea” and after both watching it we decided that this would be a great foundation for this conversation.

For context for this episode, Charelle is a mixed-race (African, Caribbean and British) woman and Verity is a white woman. We sometimes may trip up on our words, use language that is not politically correct and give opinions you do not agree with. We ask you to listen with an open mind and an understanding and reach out to us if you want to correct us or educate us; we welcome it.

We start discussing one of the key ideas that came out of the documentary; that it is not up to black people to help white people deal with their privilege. 

We move into the meaning of privilege - discussing both class and race - and the misconception of it. Chelsea discusses her teen years of dating a black guy and scrapes with the law and the inequality that was so prominent then, but she has only just realised. We talk about how we produce visual content for the podcast and the difficulty of balancing representation due to the imbalance in stock imagery out there (small but big thing).

Does white privilege exist? Do you believe in positive discrimination? Do we all just want an easy life and would our opinions change if we were born into a different race?

Verity opens up about the fact she was oblivious to white privilege up until a few years ago and wonders how we educate future generations to raise awareness of this topic. She talks about her time in India and the guilt she felt for being treated so well; most of the time because she was white.

Charelle discusses how it feels to be the only white person in the room for much of her life and career and her own experiences of choosing what ethnic group to choose when filling in forms.

We close by asking that you start having these conversations - about white privilege -  with everyone, not just black people and not just white people, but everyone. Let’s talk about white privilege.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Hello, Privilege, It’s Me, Chelsea - https://www.netflix.com/title/80244973