Largesse

In a retail miracle, the Microsoft store in Oak Park Mall gave me a new Surface Book 2 even though my old and dysfunctional one was a month and a half out of warranty.

Although I’m grateful for this, I can’t help but wonder if I would have been afforded the same leeway if I had been darker skinned. I think of white privilege all the time now, and it taints my pleasure at receiving the benefit of the doubt, the under-the-table deal, the nice gesture.

And, damn it, it should. I should be wondering. I should be questioning, because things aren’t going to change for my black and brown friends unless I quit taking generosity for granted.

Some of you are going to disagree with me. Maybe many of you will. But I want generosity to be distributed to people despite their color and ethnicity. I want people not like me to receive largesse. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate good gestures, it means I appreciate them so much that everyone should experience them.