@CheriJacobus 1. The reactions to your tweet tell me there's something missing from it: when, how and what made you feel "just a Karen"? The way you worded it sounds like an empty complaint (whining). Recently, I've been asked "what is a Karen" by my Brazilian friends.
@CheriJacobus 2. I've lived on and off in the US but only since 2017 as a permanent resident. Let's go back in time for white privilege: my EB-1A visa was fast-tracked and approved in 14 months while brown immigrants may take decades to get their greencards or not at all.
@CheriJacobus 3. Why? Because I came from white privilege which "naturally" led to high academic accomplishment. To add insult to injury, my education was fully funded by the government while others have to pay for theirs. "Merit" is socially constructed.
@CheriJacobus 4. However, although I lived on and off the US almost all my life (which is absolutely white privilege for a Latin American), I hadn't seen this: 
@CheriJacobus 5. At the time (2015-2016) I had been doing highlights on my hair for over a decade. My natural hair was an indefinite "dirty blond-light brown" color. I didn't give it much thought and along the years it got blonder and blonder. This was my professional profile picture.
@CheriJacobus 6. This picture was taken by my sister, photographer Helena Coutinho, in 2014. In 2016 I died my hair with Henna: the bottle blond started to disgust me. I felt something else: shame.
@CheriJacobus 7. I've always been conscious of my class privilege more than my white privilege. As an "old-left" Brazilian, it took much longer for me to look into and elaborate the nuances of racism. You see, the "old left" was "phasist": we were convinced that all other agendas...
@CheriJacobus 8. were not urgent and would be addressed after the revolution. The revolution didn't come and we were wrong. Our organizations were racist and bigoted. I was raped by a "compañero" (and then several) at 16. It was a method to keep girls "in their place". This is no joke.
@CheriJacobus 9. I'm still very much a leftist but the "other agendas" are part of the economic one: economic inequality, race, sex, the environment, health and climate are part of the same phenomenon. And then I couldn't stand to look at my profile picture anymore. It disgusted me.
@CheriJacobus 10. We, privileged white Brazilian leftists, understand that the unfair educational advantage that we got must be paid back to society. Now I also understand that this is white privilege and I do have a debt to the non-white people of the world who funded my education.
@CheriJacobus 11. There's is a background of guilt that will never go away. I am white and I am privileged. And it's my duty to use this privilege to fight against privilege. And most of all, acknowledge the oppressed peoples and segments' priority in their own agenda.
@CheriJacobus 12. Bottom line, I don't understand your resentment. My white privilege makes me sad and frequently frustrated but not resentful. Something must have happened that made you feel you were subject to unfair treatment.
@CheriJacobus 13. It's not just the bottle blond hair: my issue with mine was my own. I lived with that hair for about 12 years. I never felt "Karened". So... what happened?
@CheriJacobus @threadreaderapp unroll
