Stop talking, stop denying it, and listen: if you are white in this country, you are privileged.
White privilege isn't a myth or an opinion. It is an institution of racism that fuels our country every day in every social, economic, and political context, and it is just as real as every other ideology our world is built on. When did we begin laboring under the delusion that somehow racism is a thing of the past? News flash: it's here, and it's as real as ever.
White privilege is a power structure that sits on the back of favoring white skin over non-white skin. It gives white people social, political, and economic advantage over people of color and operates within the systems of racism and oppression that have existed in this country since its very founding.
Still not getting it? Let me give you a situation, Jan: "I'm white, but I'm not privileged! If I'm going to get something it's because I will have earned it." Mmkay, let's unpack this...
See, Jan, this is where you're wrong. Yes, if you want to be an engineer, you'll have to work for it. And if you become one, congratulations, I'm sure you worked very hard! But that doesn't mean you got where you are based purely on merit. At many stops along the way — regardless of whether you were aware of it — you will have gotten where you are because of your skin color.
Your white privilege is in action every time you walk around a store without being followed by an employee; it's why you can always find someone who looks like you on your TV; it's what let's you walk down the street without fearing for your safety; it's what signals to potential employers that you are a safer hire than someone of a different skin color who has the exact same qualifications as you, because customers feel more at ease interacting with white employees (a story I've heard many times from both the employee and the employer).
You know the first episode of "The Good Place," where Michael is explaining the points system for getting into the Good Place? How every good thing you do earns you points and every bad thing deducts them? Yeah, that's kind of how white privilege works. If you walk into a job interview and the manager sees that you're white, 10 points for you! That isn't to say every person of color is automatically deducted 10 points (or more), but they certainly aren't earning any.
Being white means having automatic "bonus points" wherever you go. Of course, you don't see this, Jan, because you've been white all your life. You're just living your life — you don't know that there's a points-system operating in everything you do. You've never known what it's like to walk into an interview and have someone immediately turn you down because of your race. And I'm not claiming to know what it's like either, by the way. All I do know is that this is textbook-definition racism.
White privilege is what allows me to write here; it's what got me to college; it's what gave me my job. I've worked my ass off for those things, don't get me wrong, but I have always had an additional advantage beyond my experience and qualifications: my white skin.
White privilege isn't always overt in the sense that every white person has a "better" life than every person of color. Of course, there is a black CEO out there while there's also a white person living in a low-income housing unit. That doesn't mean white privilege doesn't exist just because there's at least one successful black person and plenty of disadvantaged white people. White privilege still exists because the black CEO can be pulled over for speeding and end up on the ground with a gun to his head, while the white person is let off with a warning.
That is how white privilege persists: racism. It exists in the obvious, of course — the selection of a white job applicant over a non-white applicant (which is super illegal by the way, but still happens all the time) — but it also exists in the mundane, in the ability to walk into a bank and cash a check without being questioned of its legitimacy (which happened to a black friend of one of my professors).
Calling out white privilege isn't a personal attack or insult. It doesn't operate on the same individual basis as a singular act of discrimination. It's an acknowledgment of the existence of an entire system of power that disenfranchises people of color.If you can't admit to your white privilege without getting defensive, you are making yourself the problem. You are not the victim.
Refusing to recognize what divides people won't make it magically go away. "Not seeing color" isn't noble or progressive; you aren't bridging the divide between society and racism. You are walking up to the divide, seeing the gap, and turning back. Real action — real progress — is confronting the divide, recognizing that it's a problem, and working together to build a bridge across it, no matter how difficult it may get. Society needs to confront its relationship to racism if there is any hope of mending it.
No one is free until we are all free. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Acknowledging your white privilege and using it to help bring justice to people of color is a far greater act of solidarity and unity than claiming that you "don't see color" or that you are "just as disadvantaged as anyone else." Contrary to the Declaration of Independence, we are NOT created equal. Failing to see the systems that work to elevate whiteness and suppress people of color is ignorance and cowardice and it only perpetuates the institution of white privilege. It's 2018, ignorance is not bliss, people. We can't afford to continue turning a blind eye to the realities of injustice that have been plaguing our country for centuries.
White privilege does exist, because so does racism and discrimination. Lower your voice and start listening to someone else's — maybe if you did this, if you took a step outside of yourself and looked at life in the context of somebody different from yourself, you would be able to see where you truly stand in the matrix of privilege.
I intend to use my privilege to stand in solidarity with people of color instead of leaving the fight to someone else, and to give voice to those whose voices are being silenced. So tell me, Jan: how will you use yours?
