First Hand Exposure Blog Post 24 Frank DiMaria

So, before this class I was not really aware of the idea of a institutionalized white privilege system. And, though I think the term is misused sometimes, I saw an instance of it at a comedy club the other day. I became aware of it and I think learning about it actually helped me to identify it more. I was in Williamsville watching a comic speak and he said a joke that was really racially offending about Blacks. No one really laughed and you could tell that people were off put by it. I knew it was bad and I didn’t like it, but to make matters worse the comic said, “what are you people not laughing for, this is rich Williamsville, it’s not like there are black people around.” I was appalled to say the least and I can confidently say that I saw racism first hand. I didn’t say anything, perhaps exercising my own white privilege of silence, but the fact that this happened really proved to me that white privilege is real. Its really sad to say that this is happening, and to see even today that a white comic is still being racist against an assumed ‘poor’ nonexistent Black audience.