Meet Jenny Lundt, a college student at Colgate University.
She is aware of her white privilege, and how it has affected her life. So, in an attempt to help other white individuals see their privilege more clearly, Lundt wrote a Facebook post that has since gone viral. In the post, she describes a specific instance in her college life at Colgate.
Colgate recently made headlines when the school shut down for several hours after a black student was seen with a glue gun.
In her post, Lundt says that she has walked around campus many times holding a sword, and nobody has ever called the cops on her. This is something she attributed to her whiteness, saying, “People thought it was funny. People laughed – ‘oh, look at that harmless, silly white girl with a giant sword!!'”
The fact that the glue gun incident could happen is due to institutionalized racialism, Lundt said.
“If you think for even a second this wasn’t profiling, ask yourself why this sword is still in my room and has not ONCE made anyone uncomfortable,” she stated. “No one has EVER called the police on me. Understand that there are larger forces at play than this one night, and this one instance of racism. This is engrained in our university and our larger society. White Colgate students, we need to do better. #BlackLivesMatter.”
The post, which now has several edits, as Lundt has read and reacted to the comments, has over 15,000 shares.
While Lundt has received praise, many people of color are upset that a post by a white individual seems to be what it takes for the message they’ve been trying spread for years to resonate.
Lundt shared the perspective of one person of color, Sahil Gadhavi, in one of the edits in her post. “Where is this over-pouring of attention when black children are being shot by the police everyday, while your own white children are being raised in the ignorance afforded by their skin?” Gadhavi implored. “Where is this praise when black activists march up and down the city squares all over the country screaming ‘black lives matter’ and all they hear back is ‘all lives matter’?”
While acknowledging and commiserating with the comments, Lundt insists that it is up to white people to start the change.
She finishes her post by saying, “If every white person reading my posts commits to doing better in their own lives, we can create a paradigm shift that can ripple through all of our communities and the world at whole. We need to do better to uplift the POC in this country and that is on us.”
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