White Privilege Comes in Many Forms
Police stops, football trophies, trespassing, travel
I live in Minneapolis and when George Floyd was murdered this past summer by a Minneapolis police officer and protesters marched by my home and white suburbanites came into my city to trash it, I started to think more about white privilege. Oh yes, as a liberal, I thought I was in tuned to white privilege. But I’m embarrassed to say that I hadn’t paid attention to what it really meant. People of color were certainly telling us — but I, for one, did not really listen.
White privilege means you don’t have to REALLY listen.
When you are privileged, as I am, you are able to understand the concept of white privilege and say you get it. But you don’t — you only get it at an intellectual level — which isn’t really getting it at all.
It’s like observing someone sky diving and say you get it. You don’t.
It wasn’t until I had to live through a few days of National Guard tanks and helicopters and tear gas and plastic bullets and fires and a fear of going to sleep — that I decided I really needed start listening. And while I knew that I could never really understand because I am not a black person, I needed to do more than I had been doing.
I know I have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I’ve started listening more and noticing more and I don’t like what I see. And while it may sometimes be obvious when white privilege is present, many times it is subtle.
I’ll start with an obvious example of white privilege.
Until recently, I lived in a condo building off of a major freeway exit in downtown Minneapolis. The Minnesota State Patrol frequently pulled over motorists who had been traveling on the interstate as they came off the ramp which was in front of our building. Until this past summer when I was forced to listen to the voices telling me how systemic racism was prevalent in law enforcement, I had not noticed that the vast majority of individuals pulled over for apparent traffic violations were black.
I also noticed that black people, in particular, seemed terrified when they were stopped by police. The fear was palpable.
I developed a strategy which I hope helped just a bit. Anytime I’d see a squad in front with the lights on, I would go out on the balcony and take out my phone — presumably to begin filming any inappropriate behavior on the part of the law enforcement officers.
My strategy was easy — walk out on my balcony and pull out my phone. The strategy for parents of black children is not as easy.
White privilege means you don’t have to have “the talk” with your kids about what to do if they are pulled over by police.
Now this is more subtle: Days after the Superbowl, an inebriated Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady was seen throwing the Lombardi trophy from his $2 Million yacht to another boat. While he may have thought the gesture was funny, the daughter of the silversmith who designed the trophy wasn’t amused. She demanded an apology from Brady for insulting her family’s legacy.
Just one question: Can you imagine what would have happened if the person tossing the Lombardi trophy had been a black football player? If you don’t know, ask Colin Kaepernick what he thinks would have happened.
When mostly white insurrectionists entered the US Capitol on January 6th and defiled perhaps the greatest symbol of our democracy, our president told them he loved them and that they were very special.
Another question: Can you imagine what would have happened if the insurrectionists had been black? If you don’t know, you haven’t been paying attention.
White privilege means you don’t have to respect the sacrifices and efforts of others.
Finally, another subtle example. Pandemic travel. The CDC and many states are discouraging travel during the pandemic. And of course you have to have at least a bit of privilege (money) to travel at all.
With seven new variants of Covid-19 being found in the United States, public health officials worry that travelers may carry the variants from state to state.
Despite warnings, people are traveling.
I am going to make an assumption that proportionately more white people are traveling now than black people. I can’t find specific statistics, but we do know that people of color have been more impacted by Covid-related lay-offs. You can’t jet off to Cancun if you can’t pay your rent or buy food. Additionally, there are more challenges to being a black traveler. Safe and comfortable travel is a luxury afforded to people of privilege.
The reason travel is a privilege is because travel by nature requires people to ‘serve’ you. Let’s say I want to leave the -17 degree temperature of Minnesota and head south to sun and warm in Phoenix. I’ve had it with the cold — and I have money and time off, so I am going to go! How many people will it take to serve my travel needs in one day?
Here is a list: IT people to keep up the servers so I can book my tickets and hotel. Custodians who clean the airport restrooms and the plane. Ticket agents. Gate agents. The people who fuel the plane and clear the runways and de-ice the planes. Baggage handlers who get my luggage on the plane. TSA — security people. Mechanics who ensure my plane is safe and functional. Flight attendants. Pilots. Gate agents (other end). Shuttle drivers to get me to my rental car. Rental car lease agent. Rental car exit agent. Every single restaurant worker — cook, dishwasher, waitstaff. Even if you do take out, these people are serving you. Hotel check in personnel. Hotel cleaning staff. Hotel recreation staff (pool, spa, gym). Oh and I forgot the people at Starbucks when you get your coffee for the road.
Even if you had just one person from each area on that list serving your needs, you would have received service from over 20 people and you just started your trip.
And yes, you can make an argument that you are supporting jobs — which you are. BUT, is that the reason you are going on vacation? Did I say to myself “I should go to Phoenix now because I want to support the economy.?” No, I said to myself “I should go to Phoenix now because I want to and get to do what I want to do. Period.”
White privilege means you don’t have to even consider how many people are serving you to meet your needs.
As more and more people are vaccinated, the issues associated with travel will diminish. But the issues related to service will not and we need to think of how service and white privilege are intertwined.
As Kiese Laymon notes in his book, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America:
“If white American entitlement meant anything, it meant that no matter how patronizing, unashamed, deliberate, unintentional, poor, rich, rural, urban, ignorant, and destructive white Americans could be, black Americans were still encouraged to work for them, write to them, listen to them, talk with them, run from them, emulate them, teach them, dodge them, and ultimately thank them for not being as fucked up as they could be.”
Our challenge as white Americans is not just to wake up and listen. We must also watch for the nuances of privilege. There are plenty of examples out there. I challenge you to find more.
