I have a lot of unfair advantages that I’m very grateful for. I’m a straight white male, so I was born with these advantages, and I don’t really have a way to give them up, if I wanted to. I could move to Japan, I guess, or equatorial Africa. But I like my advantages.

It’s fashionable not to like labels, and “straight white male” is certainly a string of them. These are labels that bothered me before being bothered by labels became so fashionable, so let’s take a moment to–what’s the buzz phrase–unpack that a little. “Straight” is what I used to call non-hippies when I was a hippie, so hearing it or saying it about myself always takes me a moment to process. Although I’m not a hippie any more, I guess. I have no idea where to get drugs, and I’m starting to look a bit like a cop, so I’m not likely to have any offered to me.

“White” has always bothered me, too. I mean, when it comes to what people generally mean by “white” I don’t suppose you can get much whiter than me. But from a scientific basis (see Day 12) I don’t think there’s a test you can do to demonstrate reliably that a given person is “white.” I used to fill in the “Race” field on forms with “African American” because I am pretty sure my ancestors came from the Olduvai Gorge region of Africa, but then I figured out that was likely to offend a whole bunch of people, so I started filling in “Human” instead. I feel I’m on safe ground there.

“Male.” OK, I’ll own “male.” I have good evidence that I am. I’d show it to you, but Facebook photo policies again, see Day 1. Also, I have fathered a couple of children, which is difficult for non-male types.

But that’s a huge digression. This is about unfair advantages. You read a lot these days about “white privilege” and that’s a phrase that really gets a lot of people’s panties in a bunch. I won’t even go into what it is–you’ve read it all already. Here’s the only tidbit I want to add to the discussion: all this about unfair advantages doesn’t mean straight white males are somehow obligated to feel guilty for or to give up these things we take for granted, like a nice place to live, job promotion on our merits, the freedom to marry our partner of choice, walking down the street without getting hassled by the cops. It means that it’s unfair that someone from outside those groups can’t take those things for granted. And when we see someone being subjected to unfair disadvantage, it isn’t particularly on us to speak out against it. It’s on everyone to speak out, and that includes us. We just stand a better chance of being heard.

So I’m grateful for the advantages I’ve had. I think everyone should have them.