So here it is. My first article on Odyssey. Admittedly, I was both nervous and hesitant to enter the world of public journalism and writing (I normally try to keep my writing very close and private) but a number of things have pushed me out and into the open, among them a desire to address a piece on white privilege by my fellow Fordham student Ms. Lyman. A preface before the article proper, I speak as a white male from an, admittedly, lower economic class family. I do not want to nor will I try to speak on issues relating to those of a different ethnicity than mine because I, put simply, cannot and should not. However, if I should overstep these bounds, feel free to let me know and I will rectify it immediately.

Dear Ms. Lyman,

I ask that you read this article in full, both for your benefit and mine. I mean no disrespect in writing this piece, as I am a firm believer that discourse can bring about the most solid foundation for future learning and I hope you can learn from this. I will start this with a simpler definition: Privilege. This word, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office." It is, in many cases, subtle and unnoticed to the person who has it. While serving to aid the person who has it, privilege does not exclusively mitigate the accomplishments of the holder. A Nobel Prize winning scientist may have been privileged enough to have attended an excellent science academy or received a grant for his or her research, but that does not diminish the impact or importance of the work that awarded them the Nobel Prize. Acknowledging privilege, far from pushing the work of a person aside, helps the greater whole understand that individual and the effort they put in to achieve their goals. In some ways, one could argue an acknowledgment of privilege is a sign of humility. But we are not here to discuss the various views of privilege but specifically your views on white privilege. The academic definition of white privilege, as stated by individuals such as Peggy McIntosh the Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women Founder and Co-Director of the National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity & Diversity) Project on Inclusive Curriculum Director of the Gender, Race, and Inclusive Education Project, is "an invisible package of unearned assets" that white individuals have due to the color of their skin. These include the ability to obtain jobs, higher social status, loans, respect, the trust of employers, teachers, etc., easier than non-white individuals. Far from "diminishing" the accomplishments of white individuals, who do deserve recognition for the work they do, it critically analyzes and explains how centuries of racially biased thought continues to permeate our post-modern world and disadvantage minorities socially and economically. In many ways, the fact that you can freely write your article and I can freely write this response knowing we would both receive less backlash and discrimination from the broader community is, at its core, an example of the white privilege you claim to lack. Acknowledging white privilege is the start, hopefully, of a conversation on these issues that can lead to a better understanding of the implicit biases we, as white individuals, have and help erode them.

You claim, Ms. Lyman, that you have no white privilege because your background is "from a family that died in Auschwitz, it's coming from a family of immigrants, it's coming from a family that worked hard despite the odds." I would like to address each of these points in turn. On the first point that your white privilege does not exist because your family suffered oppression as well, I would like to clarify that privilege is not exclusive to suffering. While it is easy to say that those whose families have never experienced suffering or oppression are privileged (and one would certainly be hard pressed to disagree), it is logically false to state that those families who have experienced it are exempt from being privileged despite the social advantages of their skin color. Experiencing oppression does not free you from unknowingly perpetuating an oppressive or biased culture. To say it does is to accept a false equivalency without research or analysis into the complex issues underlying what privilege and white privilege are. I am a gay man from a lower class white family, yet I still carry with me the privilege of my gender and my skin color despite the obstacles I have faced. Moving forward, I will combine your second and third points that you lack oppression because your family is a family of immigrants who worked hard, as I feel they speak to the same core theme: My family and I have no white privilege because we struggled and worked for our success.

Firstly, good for you and your family for achieving your American Dream. However, never forget that your parents and grandparents sought jobs in a nation that, even from the 50s to 90s, was wreaked with racial discrimination, segregation, and the hard-fought (and fought against) civil rights movement. A nation that, in the decades after the so-called "end of racism" still had African-Americans being hired, and paid in disproportionately small amounts compared to their white compatriots. A nation that still saw and sees discrimination on every level, from the unknowing/subtle following of a person of color around a store, to the small judgments individuals make on people based on their skin color or accent, to the Ole Miss Riot of 1962. Yes, your family worked hard and I applaud them for that, but I challenge you to say that the world they worked in was not, even in the slightest, stacked in their favor. Does that diminish their work? No. Does it provide you with the ability to understand the world they, and you, currently live in? Yes.

Lastly, I want to address two final things you said: a challenge to find a more diminishing term than white privilege, and a statement that: "When a white person is fired or doesn’t get the job they want, they don’t go and cry discrimination." I ask you to rethink the first, the idea that there is no term more diminishing than white privilege. Even if just used as rhetorical emphasis, it is a crass disregard for the terms that many oppressed groups have faced. Chattel, slave, property, and many more vulgar and "diminishing" words that I cannot write here were faced and are faced by African Americans, LGBT individuals, minority groups, etc. And for your remarks that white people don't claim discrimination with facing obstacles, I can attest that throughout the high school and college application process I have heard white students groan in anger or disparagement about how minorities with less ability were chosen over them thanks to Affirmative Action. Moreover, having worked and lived in diverse NYC, I have heard the complaints of job applicants or family members who felt they were passed over for positions because of the unseen ethnic "quotas" needed to be filled. Do not paint one group as completely innocent, as statements like these exist on every level of society regardless of race or color.

In conclusion, Ms. Lyman, I would like to end with a personal story. I am a lower-class individual. My family has struggled to make ends meet all my life. My mother worked hard and sacrificed much to send me to a good middle school. I worked hard to attend a stellar High School. I am in Fordham thanks to academic scholarships, financial aid, and hard work. I am a gay man who grew up in a very conservative Italian world, and I worked hard to overcome discrimination and bullying in my life. But I will be the first to tell you that, while I worked hard against to achieve my position here at Fordham, to be as proud of who I am, the color of my skin afforded me leeway and benefits that aided my process. Is that an uncomfortable thing to face? In many ways, yes. I do not want myself or others to be judged on the color of our skin but the merit of our work just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a perfect world, this would be the case. But this is far from a perfect world and far from a perfect country. Minorities are still negatively judged by their skin in ways white people are not. Yet it is recognizing things like this white privilege, instead of denouncing and ignoring them, that are vital to making this country a better place by helping to erode the biases present in our imperfect world. I, Ms. Lyman, just like you am white. I have checked my privilege. Maybe you should take a deeper look at yours.