The 9 Painful Stages Of Realizing You Live In A "White Person Bubble"
I understand that I don't understand.
Stage one: Unconscious enjoyment.
"I love everybody, and everybody loves everybody! To be honest, I don’t really think about race that much, since it doesn’t really affect me."
Stage one can last anywhere from a few years to a lifetime.
"I'm not personally racist, and neither are my friends. We're good people and we know racism is bad."
Stage two: Someone or something you see in the media tries to point out that you may be in a "white person bubble."
Stage three: Knee-jerk reactive anger.
"I UNDERSTAND struggle. I've had enormous hardships too!"
Stage four: Denial.
"I voted for Obama, and I have a crush on Idris Elba? And...and...I'm human too?"
Stage five: Discovery.
Being challenged that you're not seeing things clearly through your white person bubble leads you to read and listen more to race-related news.
Stage six: Realization.
The horrifying realization that, no matter how you cut it, you are in fact in a white person bubble.
Stage seven: Completely freaking out and trying to pop the bubble.
"If I quote Martin Luther King Jr., will it help?!"
Stage eight: Realizing that you, as one person in one moment of time, can't pop the bubble — yours or anyone else's.
Stage nine: Full-on, devastating acceptance that you are in a white person bubble.
Continuing to look at how this affects your life and others may be the first step to seeing through our bubbles a little clearer.