Black woman launches ‘I need some white privilege’ crowdfunding campaign

A black woman named Yaya M. has launched a crowdfunding campaign online that asks donors to help offset her “lack of white privilege.”

Yaya launched the fundraiser at GoFundMe.com last week in an effort to raise $135,000, which she feels she’s owed due to her race. She had raised nearly $5,000 from 279 donors by Wednesday morning.

“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,” Yaya writes.

She goes on to say she is “viewed as naturally dangerous or threatening” and is constantly underestimated in her “competency level, interests, and job knowledge.”

“[M]y lack of white privilege has created numerous obstacles as I’ve struggled to successfully compete in a white dominated workforce,” she writes.

Yaya’s explains how she came up with her end goal of $135,000: “I’ve been earning anywhere from 63-69% of what a white man makes for the same work since I entered the workforce in 1999,” she writes. “Even if I control for part-time work as a teenager and consider increases in pay as I grew older/more experienced and changed my field, that still averages out to about a $9000 deficit for each year I’ve been employed. Multiply that by 15 years of hustle and you have my total.”

And in return for donations, Yaya is offering up some sarcastic thank-you gifts.

For $5, Yaya will agree to be “the black friend you are referencing when you tell people, ‘I’m not racist, I have a black friend!’”

For $65, Yaya will allow you to touch her hair, “enabling you to potentially absorb some of my magical afro powers.”

And for $250, Yaya will “dress like a cop and harass you on the street for what will seem like no reason,” and someone will post the incident on WorldStarHipHop.com.