White Privilege

By Jon Greenbereg
This article was originally published by Everyday Feminism. It has been edited for YES! Magazine. If you checked out the Jose Antonio Vargas documentary about White people, aptly titled White People, you’ll know that many White people struggle to discuss race (not that some of you needed a documentary to confirm this fact). Throw “White Privilege” into the discussion, and the awkwardness—and defensiveness—can multiply astronomically. What is White Privilege? The reality that a White person’s whiteness has come—and continues to come—with an array of benefits and advantages not shared by many people of color. It doesn’t mean that I, as a White person, don’t work hard (I do) or that I haven’t suffered (well, I have known struggle), but simply that I receive help, often unacknowledged assistance, because I am White.

Or, as Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, I “believe [I am] White.” I’ve yet to get a DNA test, which led to a surprising result for a White supremacist who thought himself 100% White. Perhaps most indicative of the power and prevalence of White Privilege is that, though people of color have been fighting racism since its invention, those who are most associated with White Privilege education tend to be White people: Tim Wise, Robin DiAngelo, Paul Gorski, and, of course, Peggy McIntosh, author of the 1989 article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” And I understand why Peggy McIntosh’s “Knapsack” article continues to fill anti-racist syllabuses 26 years later. 

Her list of privileges makes the concept readable and digestible—heck, the success of Everyday Feminism is largely because of this listing format. For example: “I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group” or “If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.” Taken together, McIntosh’s list reveals a privilege she never explicitly states: the privilege to feel normal. But how odd is it that White people are the ones who so often disproportionately get the credit for educating about White privilege? 

Think of it this way: Because I have always had full use of my legs, I’d be the last person you’d turn to to learn about life in a wheelchair. In fact, navigating a tour of the state capital with a student in a wheelchair for 30 minutes taught me more about life in a wheelchair than my previous 30+ years had taught me. Yet, when it comes to White Privilege, White people somehow become the authority. While I have indeed learned important lessons from prominent White anti-racist educators (like the above ability-privilege analogy that I pulled from Tim Wise), here are lessons people of color have taught me that have changed my life—and they could change yours as well.

1. I Have The Privilege Of Having A Positive Relationship With The Police, Generally
Sure, the police who patrolled the affluent neighborhoods of my youth were an inconvenience to a few keggers, and I maintain that a traffic violation from the late 90s was unfair, but I grew up thinking of the police officers as a source of safety if I were ever in danger; I certainly never viewed them as the source of danger. In 1999, Amadou Diallo—and the 41 bullets that police officers in plainclothes discharged at this unarmed Black man with no criminal record—taught me that not all share this privilege. Diallo was for me what Michael Brown has been to some White people. Too many Black and brown people are not safe with the police. 

Not even if you are child, a lesson Tamir Rice and Dajerria Becton taught me. Not even if you are seeking medical help, a lesson Jonathan Ferrell taught me. Not even if you call the police for help with your mentally ill son, a lesson Paul Castaway’s mother taught me. Not even if your back is turned, a lesson Rekia Boyd and Walter Scott taught me. Not even if you tell the police you “can’t breathe,” a lesson Eric Garner taught me. 

Not even if you have your hands up, a lesson Antonio Zambrano-Montes and Michael Brown (according to sixteen witnesses) taught me. Not even if you are “safe” in custody, a lesson Tanisha Anderson, Natasha McKenna, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland taught me. Not even if you plead for help while in custody, a lesson Sarah Lee Circle Bear taught me. 

These are just a fraction of my teachers, those whose names reached the media, which too often neglect reporting police killings of women of color and Indigenous people. Of course, I might not have learned any of these lessons if not for the efforts of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, a movement that is changing White perceptions of racist policing, not to mention our entire political landscape.

2. I Have The Privilege Of Being Favored By School Authorities
Kiera Wilmot and Ahmed Mohamed, both of whom were arrested for bringing science projects to school while Black or brown, helped teach me this lesson. Recently, one Black 12-year-old was suspended for intimidating a White girl through his staring—staring that took place during a staring contest. Huh? Studies confirm such mistreatment of Black and brown students. In one, White students who reported that they committed 40 crimes in a year were “as likely to be imprisoned as black and Hispanic students who reported committing just five offenses.” 

In my hometown of Seattle, Black middle school students are nearly four times as likely to be suspended as White students, a reality that has attracted an investigation by the federal government. One federal study found similar disparities start as early has preschool. Preschool. As a parent of a White 4-year-old, I can’t fathom how such heavy-handed practices would ever help my child (who recently smacked my face because he didn’t want me to leave his room at bedtime). But because we’re White, I’m unlikely to ever receive the call from school officials that Tunette Powell recounts in her article, “My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3.”  READ MORE...

WHITE PRIVILEGE

 Most of the wealthy people in the USA are white and became wealthy because of WHITE PRIVILEGE...

I am a white person

I am not wealthy

BUT...  I am still being accused of receiving my life's success because of WHITE PRIVILEGE...

Absurd...

because I have never earned an annual salary of over $50,000 during my 45 year career...

compare that to WHITES

who

earned millions and billions

and their careers are not even half over...

WHITE PRIVILEGE pertains to the WHITE WEALTHY not the WHITE POOR...

The Rest of US

 THE WEALTHY SHOULD FINANCIALLY TAKE CARE OF THE REST 

OF US...  IN AMERICA...

Share your money with the rest of us

Share your success with the rest of us

Share your special skills with the rest of us

America is financially DIVIDED...

Wealthy versus the poor

Wealthy versus the middle class

Billionaires versus Millionaires

Our government should not force the Wealthy to pay higher taxes, the wealthy should want to help the rest of us simply because we don't have the skills and/or ability to acquire the wealth like you did.

If we had those same skills, we would be as wealthy as you are but we don't have those skills so why should be penalized because you were BLESSED...

We all need to be successful.

You got your wealth because of WHITE PRIVILEGE and the rest of us have not had an opportunity to enjoy WHITE PRIVILEGE...

On My Back Porch

Music of the 1960's and 1970's plays in my ears as I contemplate what it is like to again be out on my back porch enjoying the warming weather while listening to the Cream and Hendrix softly whispering into my imagination and memories of what it was like to be a teenager again...  for me, it was not like what others endured because I was white and theoretically was being raised on white privilege...  curiously, my parent's house was smaller than the house my wife and I live in 60 years later.  

We had one bathroom with a shower for 5 of us to use and our outside yard could be mowed in about 30 minutes.  We lived in a community that was considered to be in the country...  4 miles south of Alexandria and 8 miles south of Washington, DC.  My father walked two blocks to catch the bus into Washington where he worked.  My mother did not work and we had 1 car that did not have a heater or an air conditioner because those features increased the base price.  We wore coats and sweaters in the car in the winter and rolled the windows down in the summer.

However, my parents lived better with children than they had lived in North Carolina as children with their parents...  BUT, according to the critics, both my parents and I were raised on white privilege.

WHERE PRIVILEGE ENTERED THE PICTURE was when I attended high school in Cairo, Egypt and attended classes with students of all colors from countries all over the world.  Our 1966 graduating class was 28 in number with 15 different nationalities; in fact, the VALEDICTORIAN of our senior class was a HUNGARIAN COMMUNIST who was flown to Russia after he graduated.  Whites, Blacks, Browns, Asians, Africans, Canadians, Europeans, Chinese, Japanese shared life together, never realizing we were different in color or different in our religious beliefs, or different in our political ideologies.

In the summers and since we could not work, groups of us 10-15 would travel through Europe for 30-60 days.  At that time, we could travel through Europe between $3-$5/day.  We oftentimes purchased a EURAIL PASS that gave us UNLIMITED mileage for 30 days for about $100.  So, the total cost of traveling throughout Europe was about $500.  And...  the education we received was invaluable and had nothing to do with white privilege...  as color was present all around us...   if your parents worked for the US EMBASSY, then you were privileged...  there were just as many blacks as there were whites...

After graduating from high school whatever privileged I had previous enjoyed VANISHED into the thin air of LIFE.  I worked while I attended college because I no longer wanted my parents to control me and require that certain grades be achieved.  I dropped out of college and ENLISTED into the US NAVY and there is no privilege associated with being an enlisted man in the military.

After two years, I was honorably discharged from the active duty military but had to continue 4 more years as a RESERVIST.  Using the GI BILL, I finished my undergraduate degree and also had enough money to complete an MBA.  There was no white privilege there either as I earned the right to have the government pay for my education, especially since we were engaged in the Vietnam War at the time.

Throughout my 45 year career, I was FIRED because I challenged the incompetence of management and refused to kiss the ass of management or violate my integrity.  My behavior was not an example of white privilege...  in fact, it was an example of having no privilege at all.

At the age of 60 I experienced a serious heart attack and my Cardiologist recommended a triple bypass...  My brother was on the Board of Directors of NY Presbyterian Hospital and opened the door for me to fly to NYC and have my arteries cleaned out and five stents inserted over a period of 3 operations.  THIS WAS CLEARLY AN EXAMPLE OF PRIVILEGE and to be quite honest I am glad that MY BROTHER had been in a position to have forced this to happen.  And...  13 years later, my heart is responding perfectly for a man of my age.    

On my back porch, I reflect and remember a not so glamorous past and I wonder if I would have changed anything if given a second change since this is what actually happened and since this is what actually happened why would I ever want to change it?

Similarly...  what's happening now is what is happening...  and, when it is done, why would we ever wish for it not to have happened?  Life happens because it is supposed to happen... and, there is a reason for it to happen whether or not we understand it at the time.  If we loose our freedoms, we were meant to loose our freedoms.

On Being White

IN 0.63 SECONDS, I RECEIVED 4,480,000,000 RESULTS ON GOOGLE AFTER TYPING IN "On Being White."

Most of the results through which I quickly browsed were all directed against the WHITE MAN because ALL WHITE PEOPLE were born into a white world of PRIVILEGE...  or, so it is assumed.

I had WHITE PARENTS who were educated and who raised me to treat all people equally as long as their behavior suggested it...  and, that is exactly how I lived my life.

My father accepted a DIPLOMATIC post overseas at an American Embassy and to tell you the truth, I have no idea if his bosses even considered a black man for the job...  but, if there were no black men available, then it would have been difficult to hire a black man for the job.

Going to high school in Cairo, Egypt, I experienced NO RACISM or PREDJUDICE at all among the students with whom I attended this school...  and yes, there were many people of color attending that school.

When I attended college in NC in 1966, that was the first time that I experienced racism and witnessed white people treating black people differently...  including professors.  However, once I enlisted into the US Navy, there was no racism expressed at all and I remember that my Communications Officer was a black man and I showed him the same respect that I showed all officers in the military.

After college, I had several jobs and I have no idea nor did I ask the person doing the hiring if I was competing with any black people.  However, when I was Dean of a proprietary school, I hired both black and white instructors as long as they had the appropriate credentials and/or qualifications...  and, in my experience, I was never put in a position where there was a white and a black equally qualified and I had to chose one over the other.

Whenever I was promoted inside the ranks of education from instructor to Assistant Dean and then to Dean, there WAS NEVER ANY COMPETITION for the position from either other whites or any blacks that were employed.

NOW...

I am being confronted with WHITE PRIVILEGE and how the WHITE MAN/WOMAN has always had the advantage over BLACKS...

I just don't see it...  making it difficult for me to believe it exists...  and yet, logically, I know it exists...  but, NOT ALL WHITE PEOPLE have had a life of privilege...  and, it is that distinction that pisses me off the most about blacks thinking I have had it easy simply because I am WHITE.

I had NO CHOICE in my BIRTH...

and I damn sure had no choice in my birth parents...

NO ONE DOES...  unless they have a direct line to GOD...  and believe that they can influence HIM.

Can White People Stop Being White?

So, what is racism? One helpful definition comes from Matthew Clair and Jeffrey S. Denis’s “Sociology on Racism.” They define racism as “individual- and group-level processes and structures that are implicated in the reproduction of racial inequality.” Systemic racism happens when these structures or processes are carried out by groups with power, such as governments, businesses or schools. Racism differs from bias, which is a conscious or unconscious prejudice against an individual or group based on their identity.

Basically, racial bias is a belief. Racism is what happens when that belief translates into action. For example, a person might unconsciously or consciously believe that people of color are more likely to commit crime or be dangerous. That’s a bias. A person might become anxious if they perceive a black person is angry. That stems from a bias. These biases can become racism through a number of actions ranging in severity, and ranging from individual- to group-level responses...  SOURCE:  Tolerance.org, author Cory Collins

SO...

according to Cory Collins, it is ok for a white person to be biased...  as long as this white person does not put that bias into action like walking to the other side of the street avoid a group of black people because this white person has a bias that black people are dangerous...

BUT...

Cory Collins does not take into consideration the circumstances that caused this white person to exercise his bias...  such as the white person being retired or handicapped and that this same action would have been taken if there was a group of people were white.  It also does not take into consideration, the time of day or if this group of black people are young, old, or middle aged or how they might have been dressed...  it also does not take into consideration if this white person crossing the street is male or female...  nor does it take into consideration their religious beliefs or any previous encounters like this where the outcomes were less than positive...

THEREFORE...

all biased action is not necessarily an indication of racism...  and yet...  the BLACKS think that it is...

HOWEVER,

this still does not explain to me how to get rid of my whiteness or what whiteness is exactly...  I am assuming that whiteness is another word for white privilege.  And, I can assure you that not all white person were born into the ranks of white privilege...  for that guarantee, you need to check out the students who are attending the IVY LEAGUE colleges and universities.

The average white person, male or female, typically works for someone else and is considered labor not management.  And if, this average white person is labor, then the odds are that they were raised no where near the concepts of white privilege.  Even those in management are not always from the ranks of white privilege, even though they have ended up as managers of retail stores, manufacturing plants, restaurants, hotels, motels, and resorts...  I would suspect that they, over the years, worked their way up through the ranks.

ALSO...

and I remember this quite vividly that when my Dad worked for the Federal Government in the Department of Agriculture, he was FORCED to hire a certain PERCENTAGE of BLACKS whether they were qualified or not and the employment security of his position was dependent upon how well these unqualified employees performed...

White privilege or not...  that was not fair to him...  but, the government thought it was fair to the BLACKS...

Is this how the government is going to help us REMOVE OUR WHITENESS....

How do you suppose that our government is going to help the Blacks remove their BLACKNESS and the chip on their shoulders because of slavery that was perpetrated on their ancestors over 200 years ago?

If WHITENESS needs to go so too does BLACKNESS need to go...

I mean we are talking about EQUALITY...  right?