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Georgia High School Student Brilliantly Discusses White Privilege in Class Presentation

Robin (@thyrobin)

Robin (@thyrobin)

A student at a Georgia high school took her class assignment to new heights by discussing white privilege.

Robin is a senior at Fayette County High School. During her favorite speech class, the teacher assigned her students to create an informational speech.

“[Our teacher] tells us the area where we should create our topics and we all create our own individual ideas,” she told BuzzFeed News.

As the leader of a club called the People of Color Union – which discusses global injustices among various races – Robin believed white privilege would be a fitting topic.

During her speech, the 12th grader explained the roots of white privilege, defined it and described the way communities work around it.

“[White privilege] affects our daily society in our magazines,” the 17-year-old explained. “Children are also influenced and I used the doll test as a reference. We live in a Eurocentric society.”

After the presentation, Robin took a photo next to the title card of her slides. She tweeted the image and that’s when it took off.

The tweet reading “I had these white kids shook!” has garnered 37,000 retweets and nearly 80,000 likes since Oct. 21.

She also got a round of applause from her classmates.

After sharing, Robin won lots of praise online.

Additionally, Robin had an inquiry to join PCU.

But she also had her share of backlash.

Robin was forced to defend herself online, pointing out her teacher – who is white – encouraged her to explore the topic.

Then, Robin explained what she discussed in the presentation more deeply.

Ultimately, Robin said reaction has been positive. In the classroom, one student became aware of how white privilege influences society.

“There was only one kid [in class] who said that he felt hurt when other races say it’s all white people,” Robin told BuzzFeed News. “But he later said he never saw his life like that and that it really informed him how our society is.”

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