Psyched Out

I didn't learn about white privilege from a class or assigned readings. I learned about it from my fun and friendly and brilliant and beautiful college roommate Lavonne. She was from Chicago and we had almost everything in common. Except white privilege. Lavonne was African American. Being friends with her changed my life and my perception of myself. I had mostly identified myself by class, but hanging around Lavonne made me acutely aware of my whiteness and the many things I took for granted that she could not. Like not being followed by security in stores. And having food servers skip over her to ask me what I wanted. And being able to get my hair wet if it rained. Which I usually did, because Lavonne would confiscate my umbrella if an unexpected fall of rain happened. :)

When people are new to the fat acceptance movement, they often say that fat phobia is "the last acceptable prejudice." Sometimes I get sick and tired of enlightening them, but I keep on doing it. To honor Lavonne. Even though I had to drop out of college after my second semester and move back to my home town, and we lost touch, I will never forget what I learned from her and honor it.