When I was sixteen, I got an after-school job in a drugstore downtown.

Two black girls took turns training me. They were in their twenties and had been working there for a couple of years.

About a month later I was working with one of them when she casually asked me how much I was being paid, so I told her. I could tell by her face something was off, but didn’t question her.

The next day when I came into work the owner called me into his office and told me to NEVER again discuss my pay with other employees.

What I found out was that I was making more as a sixteen-year-old new hire than two black girls who had trained me and been working there much longer than I.

I didn’t know what else to do so I went home that day and never went back.

This is the meaning of white privilege.

It doesn’t mean we have had easy lives or never worked hard or struggled.

It means we get privileges we don’t even ask for because of the color of our skin.

If we want to find our way out of this chaos to a place of peace and equality, these are the things we need to face and correct.

DEI wasn’t created to give unfair advantage to those who aren’t qualified. It was made to level the playing field and make things like this illegal.