In her March 26 Op-Ed commentary titled “Woman to woman,” Midge Wilson discusses the important issues of how black and white women can build positive relations with each other.
She cites many factors in an attempt to explain the failure of white and black women to develop real bonds of solidarity and friendship.
She does not mention, however, the salient cause of division: white supremacy.
White women need to understand the myriad privileges that are inherent to being white in this country. Those privileges include a higher standard of living, better-paying jobs, access to better schools and health care, an absence of police brutality and of racial harassment in our lives.
Understanding the many benefits that come from being white in this country should compel us to act to ensure that all people have access to these basic human rights that we take for granted.
Only when we acknowledge our privileges and act to expand them to people of color can we forge bonds of solidarity with black women based on both our commonalities and our differences.
