Grace Paley’s “Traveling” wasn’t a new story. It was the story of many right minded white people who grew up in a day and age where they were the minority. It’s a weird thing to remember, that your race had so horribly persecuted and oppressed another. It’s even weirder to be reminded by a white woman when you yourself are a white woman. Stories like Paley’s remind us that it’s incredibly important to look at yourself and what you’re doing to others. It’s important to remember this country’s history- the history of the oppressed and the enslaved and the belittled. It’s important for us to understand what we did wrong; to analyze it, to figure out how we can move towards something better. And it’s especially important that we white people recognize the privilege our ancestors have ripped away from others for ourselves in the past- and how to use that privilege to give voice to those who need to speak.
