During our Cross Country Checkup discussion about police involved shootings and the future of race relations, Brady Marks called in from Vancouver to share her thoughts on white privilege and the way that she realized she had it.

"White privilege" is a concept that comes from critical race theory and has come into mainstream conversations of race in the past two decades. According to a Toronto teacher who led workshops on white privilege, it can be defined in the way that it works. Sonia Ellis-Seguin said, "White people will have benefits or have advantages within society purely because they are white."

For Marks, this concept was apparent while she lived in South Africa. Now living in Canada, she says white privilege still operates but in different ways. Listen to Marks elaborate on white privilege in conversation with Checkup guest host Asha Tomlinson:

Asha Tomlinson: What do you think about the issue of white privilege?

Brady Marks: I'd like to share analogy about white privilege because white people don't notice it until they really try to see it. It's kind of like taking a bicycle trip. You're riding your bike and you think you're the greatest cyclist. You're having a really good day and then you turn around and you realize that you had a wind at your back the whole day long. It wasn't you, because there are systems in place that grant privilege.

AT: What was your a-ha moment?

BM: Growing up in South Africa, we had institutionalized racism in our laws. Things ran very smoothly and there wasn't much contention in white circles until some of that privilege was under threat. As it was noticed, white people were suddenly unhappy and defended it because it benefits them.

I'd like to say that racism affects us all but it's not true. It's blights black lives and it privileges white lives.

As white people, we need to recognize white privilege; we need to look around for it and try to see where it is. We don't worry about things like a broken tail light on my car, we don't look at that and go, "Oh, I might die today because of that." You'd say, "I'll get it fixed next week." But that's not the same for everyone.

We're almost living in two different worlds because of this race system. I really liked the comment from a previous caller who said that race doesn't exist but racism does. We've created this thing. We teach racism to our children.

AT: How has your thought process changed after realizing and recognizing this white privilege?

BM: I feel like it's almost a solidarity for me. I have issues in my life where I am not privileged and as I realize those I see other people who are struggling against systems of oppression. So, it's like solidarity between us. We're all different and we're all a minority in some way and as you start to feel that, you can see it acting on other people around you in different ways.

AT: Where you living now, Brady?

BM: In Vancouver.

AT: Have you noticed differences between growing up in South Africa and now being here in Canada?

BM: I think that I largely face very little oppression against me. I am a trans person and there are times when I am picked on and I cannot access places, like bars, because they questioned my gender status.

But I'm sure that there's people who have had that kind of experience for many different reasons: could be race; could be a social privilege; could be anything. Once you start appreciating any oppression whatever minority you belong to, you just to see it acting around you.

I would just like everyone to see how they are affected by race. And answer the question not "Am I racist?" but "How racist am I?" because we're all are racist to some extent because we live in this culture where it is so pervasive.

AT: It takes hard reflection.

BM: It does. And you want to say, "No, I'm not racist," but you can't not be, because it's how our culture is set up. The whole of North America has benefited from this idea of black gold. Our economic system is further advanced because of slavery. You can see how economic growth in Africa leveled off after slavery, whereas we've experienced exponential growth here.

We truly mined black bodies to create an economic engine that has empowered this continent. It's not that we're any smarter or any more talented or any more brilliant that we have Google and Microsoft and the headquarters of all these companies here in North America that create this prosperity. It's that we have an economic edge over the rest of the world that was powered by black bodies. And that sounds fairly extreme but I don't know how else to say it.

AT: What you're saying makes me think of a quote by the late Maya Angelou, and she said, "When you know better, you do better."