White Privilege

Over the past week or so, I have been trying to figure out what the topic of my next post should be. Over the past week, I have also been reading a book by Tim Wise, titled "White Like Me". While it is not my intent to make this post a review of Mr. Wise's book, I wanted to preface this post with that information because I have no doubt that some of the lessons contained within that book will be reflected here.

Before I get to that however, I would like to offer part of something that was developed by a woman named Peggy McIntosh. Mrs. McIntosh states that she used the following questions in order to work on how white privilege affected her daily life. In this regard, she is perhaps best known for her work "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". The true effect of answering these questions lies in comparing one's answers with those of people of color.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

I spend a considerable amount of time reviewing material related to race and racism. An element which is related to racism, and one which is necessary for any discussion about it, is that of white privilege. The irony in that statement is that while many white people will claim that they, and the society around them, have absolved themselves of racism, many white people don't have a clue as to what white privilege is. More disappointing is that, even those white people who have been introduced to the term, don't possess an accurate understanding of it. For some, this lack of understanding comes from privilege itself. They don't have to know; their lives will continue unabated whether or not they acknowledge this aspect of it. For others, there is an active resistance to the idea of white privilege because of the uncomfortable feelings with which the acknowledgment of privilege often brings. Some white folks have great difficulty processing the concept that their whiteness has afforded them things which are not afforded to everyone else. To acknowledge this requires that one also acknowledges that the reality which has been packaged and doled out to us is not, in fact, accurate. This is no small thing. For white people to come to terms with the fact that their perception of the world and how it works is not shared by everyone around them and that there are institutional systems in place which favor the majority [read: white folks] is a tough thing to get one's mind around. In fact, the normal initial reaction to a concept like white privilege is the triggering of one's coping mechanisms. Things like denial, rationalization, and minimization offer consolation to the endangered ego, until that person is in a position in which they can assimilate this new information. That is, if one chooses to assimilate the information. See, that's one of the more interesting points about white folks and privilege. We, as white people, have a choice after learning of white privilege. We can internalize the concept, learn both from it and about it, and actively resist it. Or, as Tim Wise so eloquently put it, "just go back to sleep" and forget it.

This post is by no means an in-depth exploration of white privilege and all of its complexities, nor did I intend it to be. Truth be told, this blog is the result of my privilege. It is because of my privilege that I can, as I stated at the beginning of this post, contemplate as to what my next topic should be. As if the social problems on which I comment are closer to fruit hanging from a tree waiting for me to pluck and offer my thoughts rather than real problems with which real people must engage every day. I know that privilege has afforded me this and I feel it is important for me to own that. In resistance to that same privilege, I have chosen to bring the concept out for others to examine. I would encourage everyone [read: especially white folks] to take some time and learn more on this topic. The least one might accomplish in doing so is to expand their knowledge of the human dimension. The most one might accomplish is perhaps to learn more of what is necessary to be human.