I wrote this as a reaction to a book called White Like Me by Tim Wise for a class, but it was such an eye-opening book and I'm so passionate about it that I thought I would share.
I have to admit, as a white person, the concept of white privilege never really resonated with me. And to be honest, at times it even rubbed me the wrong way. I grew up believing that hard work was the key to success. My parents raised me to always be very accepting and open to people from other races, backgrounds, and cultures. Naturally, I thought that no matter what your background was, you had the opportunity to succeed. After all, this is America, right?
Throughout my entire two-year experience in the graduate program, I still had a hard time understanding white privilege, even though I have been trained in multicultural awareness and sensitivity. There were times where in my head I found myself comparing racism to me being made fun of in my life for having extremely fair, ivory-like skin. I could not separate the two. I so often made the argument that Tim Wise refers to in White Like Me many times: The white people today were never slave owners. We didn’t do this. Now, before you go judging my former naïve and narrow frame of mind that supposes white privilege does not exist, take a moment to continue reading. What I learned from Tim Wise follows.
Wise makes the case that “It doesn’t matter that today’s whites weren’t around ‘back then.’ It doesn’t matter that today’s whites never owned slaves, never killed any Indians, and never stole land from Mexico. We are here now, and so are the black and brown descendants of those persons of color whose ability to accumulate assets, professional credentials, education and homes was restricted for so long.” (Wise, 2008). In a YouTube video, he compares this to running a race with a four-lap head start. He says we “have closed the gap some, but not all” as those who started the race behind have now gained a few laps on their fellow competitors. They still haven’t caught up entirely.
The reason why it doesn’t matter that today’s whites weren’t the whites from back then and that today’s people of color weren’t alive when slavery and segregation were legal is based on inheritance. “We pay off government debts, even though much of the spending that created them happened so long ago.” (Wise, 2008). It is inherent that we will always be inheritors of the past. Obama inherited the problems that Bush created. Bush inherited the problems that Clinton created. All leaders inherit the work of their predecessors. For those of us who aren’t presidents, we’ve got what our ancestors left us. When family members die, we inherit their assets, both good and bad. Surely we don’t want to inherit the debt that our families have left for us. “But we never had a problem accepting inheritances that we never worked for,” inheritances that would ultimately benefit us (Wise, 2008). Call me crazy, but the concept of inheritance is directly in contradiction of the American Dream, or the American Myth, that hard work will equal success. There simply is more to it than that.
Like it or not, we have inherited a history rich with prejudice, discrimination, and racism. But, we have also inherited a nation rich with innovation. “We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook” (Obama, State of the Union, 2011).
We are too worried with the idea that we are being threatened by others that look differently than us. Instead, we should be collaborating with others and seeking to be anti-racists. Feeling threatened often causes us to work as an individual. Collaborating enables us to feed off each other’s ideas, sparking more imagination and innovation. It allows us to work as a team, to play to our strengths while relinquishing our weaknesses to others who consider those weaknesses to be their strengths. Together, we are a much larger force to be reckoned with, no matter what race we are.
What does this have to do with white privilege? Everything. You see, by allowing ourselves to be racist, whether overt or not, we are limiting our successes and perpetuating the American Dream as the myth that it is. As a white person, failing to realize that white privilege does indeed exist, I am no better than my slave-owning ancestors were a couple hundred years ago. I am still denying people of color the “assets, professional credentials, education and homes” that they have been denied for so long. I am holding the dreams that people of color have as slaves. And yes, they too, have dreams that they would like to come true, restriction free.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. As Wise points out, there are things that we can do. Speak up. Confront racism. The most powerful thing we can do is to “engage, not enrage” (Wise, 2008). Challenge our friends, family, acquaintances, peers, and colleagues when they make a racist comment or joke. Challenge yourself, your beliefs, your values, as I did. It is always harder to do the right thing when you have to do it alone, but the benefits of doing the right thing will always outweigh the costs. Oh and by the way, doing the right thing has a tendency to be contagious.
References
Obama, B. State of the Union Address, 2011.
Wise, T. White Like Me. Berkeley: Soft Skull Press, 2008.
Wise, T. “Vote NO on MCRI- Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.” YouTube, 2007. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ZdR1alqmM.
