To even acknowledge the relevance and presence of white supremacy in present day society is irrespective of the minority status I hold today. I am both black and a woman, allowing me to fall within the ranks of what our society has deemed to be the most inferior social status (unapologetically at that. I am a black girl who loves being a black girl and I love everything that comes with it). But this is merely about my oppression. This is about our current societal structure’s failure to acknowledge my oppression and the role that they, white progressives and liberals alike, have played in perpetuating this oppression for centuries on end.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights pioneer and champion for social equity, has been held to high regard in nearly every history book we have touched. His profound beliefs on social change within the United States has granted him his legacy, and he has been revered for consistently keeping in mind the future of our nation with every ounce of work he committed himself to. Indubitably, we owe our current status in this world to the work of people like Dr. King and his many partners in the fight against injustice and racial discrimination. But I must say, with utmost honesty and respect, that he is turning in his grave.

Prior to his death, Dr. King exposed the world to the ideology of what he called, ‘The Beloved Community.’ King spoke confidently of a country that would see past race, sex, religion, and many of the other hindering labels that prevented our society from functioning effectively. He advocated for us to see each other as one and diminish the idea of a socioeconomic hierarchy that locked its victims in place; stagnant and beyond reach of economic mobility. He argued, rightfully if I may add, that the successes of one man did not have to be weighed by the toil of another. And what he made outstandingly clear was that the end goal was for everyone to “reach the promise land”, and for everyone to be allotted the same opportunities and chances as the next person in getting there.

This very liberty I describe is what our ancestors had been deprived of, and Dr. King ensured that the only way to live in a post racial society would be to grant this liberty to ourselves through dialogue and understanding of one another; beyond race, beyond sex, and beyond creed. But in our yearly efforts to do so, we are stifled in our progress by a barrier called white privilege.

Black America knows all too well the action of taking two steps forward just to be knocked five steps back. The blatant racial discriminatory actions of this country’s past have been systematically replaced with discreet legislation that protects the interests of one group and exploits the interests of all others. This system not only weakens the weak and strengthens the strong, but it determines who the weak will be, who the strong will be, and how our society will function in attempt to maintain this dichotomy. To even have such power is blasphemous, but this is what white privilege is.

We, colored peoples of this country (beyond blackness), are the weak and therein are the minority. They, our paler brethren, are the strong and therein are the majority. And as a majority, their wishes are of utmost concern and policies, whether right or wrong, adhere to their wishes.

This privilege shows face in all walks of our life, including the courtroom, where Brock Turner, a white ex Stanford University swimmer, received a maximum sentence of three months for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster while Corey Batey, a black ex Vanderbilt University football player, received a minimum sentence of 15-25 years for a similar charge. This privilege shows face in classrooms, where public schools attended by black and latino students are drastically deprived of the common resources necessary to sustain an education while predominantly white schools teem with opportunity. This privilege shows face on sidewalks, where black men starting at the age of 12 are predetermined threats to society and bear the burden of possibly dying before they make it home while their white counterparts live worry free.

Does white privilege win in every instance it presents itself? No. The unnerving circumstances that many minority individuals have faced is not the only circumstance of the minority in America. Success stories reign from all underprivileged classes, including the story of Larissa Martinez; an undocumented graduating senior of Mckinney Boyd High School in Mckinney, Texas who now has a full ride to Yale University, the second best university in the country (a fact she proudly disclosed to the entire audience during her valedictorian speech at her graduation).

Does every white person allow white privilege to infiltrate their lives? No. The disgusting values behind this word, yet while not abandoned by everyone, are surely not accepted by everyone either. Most recently, J.K. Rowling as she vehemently rejected the idea that the only woman fit to play the role of Hermione in the up and coming Broadway/London play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" should be white. After officially casting a black woman, Rowling was trolled, attacked, and stalked on every avenue of social media for her doing, ending the array of arguments with the following statement: “We found the best actress and she’s black. Bye bye, now.”

It’s true; we are far better off than our ancestors were 100 years ago. The intimidation of white society is no longer at the cornerstone of all our practices. We are free by law, and the proof to validate this claim is very much tangible now. But the system of hierarchy put in place by our predecessors’ owners has barely left the country it was cultivated in. While this privilege is no longer explicit, it is implicit and this is a truth only few choose to reckon with. However regardless of how many people decide to acknowledge it’s presence, white privilege will still be here.

The school to prison pipeline will still be here. Mass incarceration will still be here here. Food deserts will still be here. Economic disparity between predominantly white public schools and predominantly black/latino public schools will still be here. The wage gap will still be here. What’s happening in Flint, Michigan will still be here. Poverty will still be here. Government sustained and systematic poverty will still be here. And to question the legitimacy of these notions is to be exercising one thing, and one thing only: privilege.