“The question is, what type of human do I want to be? How do I want to use my platform? Do I want to be safe under my umbrella of white privilege? Or do I want to push back and resist?”

On Wednesday, our Global Citizens CAP stream had a second joint lecture of the school year; focusing on the Black Lives Movement after touching on the refugee crisis in the first term. We also expanded on our discussions about global citizenship using this contemporary movement as a lens.

Personally, I enjoyed the lecture; for the discussions that arose within our groups, and do not regret skipping it to work on my Geography essay or any other work. Back on topic, prior to this lecture I was especially interested in Macklemore’s new song, “White Privilege II” which had come out with his album, “This Unruly Mess I’ve Made”. This prevalent inequality between black and white people has been around for quite a while, but the issue is only now, starting to be addressed more seriously in a post 9/11/21st century era. As a white rapper, Macklemore attempts to address his views on the issue, considering his white privilege. In an article, or an interview he was in, (Apologies, I forgot to save the link to this), he explained how parents educated their white kids into listening to only white rappers. They had argued that the lyrics he sung weren’t as provocative as those of black rappers (ex. J.Cole, Kid Cudi, Tyler the Creator). However, by using his “celebrity status”, he starts to engage white people into this conversation of systemic racism. Where do people stand with issues such as these in a contemporary society? And how do we push past these issues? He insists that the system is at fault, that the system that let off Darren Wilson is the means by which he is able to be successful as a white rapper. And this is horrendous.

I want to take a turn and briefly consider another example, the topic of mental illnesses, as somehow this issue provoked my mind to think about myself and those I’m surrounded by. Someone had once claimed that she was better than someone else, simply because she had the pills to make her anxiety subside faster and better. Which I found to be incredibly arrogant and just plain stupid. It’s not a competition. No one wants to feel out of control, and it absolutely sucks that we live in this system of superior and subordinate.

After this lecture, I felt as though this needs to be better addressed. Yes it is great that white rappers like Macklemore are risking everything, to advocate for the truth, but I also feel like issues such as oppression need to be reiterated and taught in schools better. And this needs to start at a young age.

P.S. I am not in any way, relating the topics of the Black Lives Movement and mental illnesses in the sense that they appear to be on the same level(?), I just felt I could use the latter as an example to reach my point on global citizenship and to reach awareness into initiating conversations.

Have a good weekend!

KYLO