A week ago, Thom Hartmann published a fantastic article entitled The Snowflaking of White Privilege. Yesterday, on MLK Day, I contacted Thom on the air during his award winning radio and television program to comment on the article. During our brief conversation, Thom asked me how did I define white privilege because I had left a written comment on the article that stated “Socrates said that the beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms. White privilege is the privilege to define what white privilege is. Whilst you white folks pontificate.”
I explained to Thom that the answer was a lengthy one that did not lend itself to the brevity of time we had to discuss the matter. Nonetheless, his query haunted me the entire day and though I had (and have) an answer to the pointed interrogatory, I realized that many do not fully understand the “definition of terms.” Ergo, once again Hartmann has inspired me as a writer and this article is a product of that inspiration.