Mono-racial privilege

[zandperl]

Reading over a list of things that people with white privilege take for granted, I am reminded of how I feel every time I am told to "check only one box." This list is things that people of only one race take for granted.

1. You can check only one box.
2. You won't have complete strangers walk up to you and ask you what you are (as if maybe you're not human, after all).
3. You can answer "where are you from" with the place where your house is located, or where the hospital in which you were born is located.
4. You can answer "where are you from" in under ten minutes, without any follow-up questions.
5. You don't have to worry if someone is hitting on you because you look "exotic". 
6. You don't have to wonder if the person you're talking to would treat you differently if they knew what you "really" were. 
7. You don't have to correct people when they describe you. 
8. You can talk about white privilege or racism without having people give you funny looks.  ("How would she know?")
9. You don't feel constantly torn in two directions about common cultural norms and values.
10. You don't have to think about whether the clothing, jewelry, or make-up you're wearing makes you look too much like race X.
11. You can wear hand-me-downs without worrying if they're too "ethnic". 
12. You don't have people turn to you as a representative of either/all of your particular races/cultures.
13. You don't have to check only one box (multicultural) that lumps you in with people of entirely different backgrounds.  (Tiger Woods and Obama would check that multicultural box, but their experiences are nothing like mine.)
14. You can nod and agree when someone says to you "I'm multicultural: Italian and German!" 
15. People don't expect you to laugh at jokes that slander your own background. 
16. You don't have to feel simultaneously guilty about your advantages and angry about your disadvantages.

Time to run to work.  Got any more I can add?