“I need some white privilege”: In response to that potato salad Kickstarter

Yaya is looking to crowdfund some white privilege.

You may have heard about that guy who raised a ton of money for his potato salad. If you didn’t, well, there’s not much more to it than that — some dude made a Kickstarter campaign for a potato salad and it went viral, raising over $40,000 as of this writing. I guess it’s some big joke for people, but alongside all this is an important discussion about white privilege and internet fundraising. 

Yaya M. has landed on a pretty genius response, in the form of their own crowd-sourcing campaign: I need some white privilege!

I am writing you today to ask that you assist me in acquiring some white privilege. Although I have layered oppressions that have affected my ability to access my slice of the American Pie™, no issue has affected me more readily than my lack of white privilege. From being assumed to have “cheated” my way into programs for gifted children AND college (via affirmative action), to having my natural hair viewed as unprofessional amongst professional peers, to having people make negative assumptions about my competency level, interests, and job knowledge, to being viewed as naturally dangerous or threatening, my lack of white privilege has created numerous obstacles as I’ve struggled to successfully compete in a white dominated workforce. I am hoping that, through this campaign, I will begin to make some headway towards closing the gap that white privilege has created in my life.

Yaya calculated the fundraising goal by taking the percentage amount Black women make as compared to white men for the same work — that’s 69% — and arrived at $135,000 to make up for the 15 years of underpaid work. Now this I can get behind!

Verónica especially loves this kickstarters’ sarcastic perks.