White privilege never really demanded my attention – though of course I was aware it was there. I am a 15 year-old Caucasian girl who goes to a public high school in a preppy tourist town and sails at a yacht club all summer; it’s no surprise that I personally haven’t had any issues with racism directed towards me.

Living on Cape Cod all my life hasn’t given me much insight  to what other places are like. I have traveled around America, as well as the world, but as a tourist you don’t see the real social and racial hierarchy of people in those areas.

I hadn’t put much thought into whether or not racism was still relevant to today’s world; I didn’t think I needed to since it’s the 21st century and we live in America: “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Brave is for sure. From what seems like a recent outbreak of cases of over- aggression of police towards African-Americans, there have been protests all over our country. In Ferguson, police have been using tear gas and shooting rubber bullets. Despite this effort from the authorities to stop these peaceful protests, people still continue to stand up for what they believe is right.

Last year I remember hearing about the Trayvon Martin case and being baffled at exactly what happened. George Zimmerman didn’t serve time and that still boggles me. But in Ferguson, the shooter wasn’t some neighbor who felt victimized just because there was a teenage black boy in this neighborhood; it was a police officer (someone I’ve been taught, growing up in my small town, to trust).

This isn’t a new kind of crime for Ferguson either. Crimes similar to this have happened before. A year ago, Cary Ball Jr., a 25 year-old student, was shot by the police even though he had surrendered after a car chase and was unarmed.

And this isn’t just an issue in far away states, earlier this year Eric Garner was held in a chokehold by a NYC police officer and died. He was a 43 year-old, unarmed, black male who was supposedly illegally selling cigarettes –  though no proof was evident during the time of his death. This specific interaction between Garner and the police officer was caught on video and became viral. It not-so-surprisingly caused an uproar. And the uproars continue because the grand jury decided not to indict the officer that killed Garner.

Esaw Garner – Eric’s widow – said in an interview, “Somebody that gets paid to do right did wrong and he’s not held accountable for it.”

The unrest from all of this has me really questioning my privilege simply for being born white. Maybe it was shallow of me for thinking that our country was above these injustices, because obviously it isn’t. And maybe what every history teacher has told me is the truth… history repeats itself.

Finally, maybe these specific crimes haven’t personally affected me, but America is my country – and I ask myself, should I be brave?