Should white girls speak up?

I attended a panel discussion on Hurricane Katrina and the media-race links today. One thing I noticed at this discussion was that only one of the white audience members (there were perhaps 20 people, 30 at most, in the audience) commented. The white faculty and staff added their thoughts (and actually, two members of the panel were white) without hesitation. I was struck by this and sat wondering about it.

The panel didn't raise any issues that I have not already considered myself. And I had thoughts. I had lots of thoughts. But I didn't contribute. Why? Because somewhere along the way, I learned that it wasn't my place. I'm a middle-class white girl (though at 33, some would probably claim that I'm no longer a girl), what right do I have to talk about racial issues, to talk about poverty, to talk about the suffering that goes with both in our society? I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, I'm in law school. No, I'm not independently wealthy. Yes, I have debt. Yes, the cash flow is restricted. But come on, who can't recognize that I'm a "have"? That I even had access to get these degrees is something that not everyone can say. I'm privileged in that way.

Wow, how stupid was I? Sheesh. Sometimes the vast level of my stupidity surprises even me.

How exactly will anything ever change if the "haves" think they have no place in the conversation? The "haves" create and dictate the damn conversation (in terms of the media and the public sphere, not necessarily in terms of the private sphere and the local level). For changes this big, this encompassing, this important, the change happens on the small, personal level. It happens by starting the conversation, and keeping it going, with your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers. It happens on your block, in your neighborhood. It happens with your children. It happens when people like me speak up and join the conversation and in that way become a part of the solution. Actions aren't enough here. You can't just not discriminate. You have to talk about it. You have to have the discussions, the conversations.

My master's is in public administration. At heart, I'm all about the public sector. I want to make a difference, to make a change, to make our world better for all of us. And yet, there was still a part of me that thought I didn't have a place in the conversation? How can that be? How can any of us not participate?

I'm such an idiot sometimes.