Take a little time to read
this article. It is quite
enlightening.
Buddy
How I Benefit From White
Privilege
By Laura Douglas
Date: March 24, 2001
As a white woman
who's been thinking about
how I benefit from white
privilege, I see that so
much of it consists not only
of what I do get to feel and
experience but of what I am
privileged not to have to
think about or experience.
For example, it looks to me
as though a cornerstone of
white privilege is simply
not having to think about
race, not having to think
about my color and how
people are going to respond
to me because of it. Given
my living circumstances, I
could easily go through an
entire day and have
absolutely nothing to remind
me that the subject of
racism exists--even though I
may walk past several
Latinos on my way to work,
buy a paper from an Asian
man, and talk to the Black
teller as I make a deposit
at the bank. To come in
contact with persons of
color is not the same as
being aware that racism is
still a raging problem in
this country. The ball is in
my court about whether I'm
going to think about it or
not, how much I'm going to
think about it, etc.
A person of color does not
have this choice. To live
and to function in this
society is to be forced to
think about race and racism
whether one wants to or not.
In this article, I've
attempted to write as deeply
as I could about white
privilege as I specifically
experience and benefit from
it. This is not about all
white people, or even all
white women, because I
believe there are important
differences based on our
individual personalities and
how we tend to interact with
other people, our size, how
we look, what our living
circumstances are, including
how isolated in white
surroundings we are, etc.
(This is also going to be
rather revealing about me as
a person, which I feel a
little embarrassed about,
but I don't know how to do
this any other way!) So here
is what I've seen so far:
1. I go
through life pretty much
expecting that of course
people are going to like
me--at least not dislike or
reject me--unless I do
something which causes them
to be against me. This is
the opposite of what too
often people of color have
to go through: they have to
operate on the basis that
someone may automatically be
against them because of
their ethnicity unless they
can prove they are OK--not
like the rest of "them".
2. I can go
around being my gregarious,
outgoing self, smiling at
people, talking to
strangers, and find that my
friendly overtures are
usually welcomed. I go
through life feeling free to
pretty much do as I please
in a relaxed way, a white
woman in a white world--even
when there are persons of
other ethnicities around. I
don't feel I have to "watch
myself" to make sure I don't
behave in a way that may
offend someone. I don't have
to reign myself in because
people are probably going to
feel suspiciously "What's
she up to; why is she so
friendly?" or resentfully
"She sure is uppity; who
does she think she is, just
taking it upon herself to
start talking to me like
that?"
3. Related
to this, I can go just about
anywhere I need to and feel
that of course my presence
there will be looked on with
favor and I'll be welcome. I
don't have to feel that
people are merely tolerating
my existence in their midst,
that they'd prefer I weren't
there among them.
4. I expect
to be dealt with
respectfully by strangers.
When I'm treated in a way
that, unfortunately, most
persons of color, no matter
who they are, have to be
prepared to be treated at
one time or another--some
fairly frequently--I'm
usually quite surprised and
outraged.
5. If
another member of the
dominant society does treat
me
disrespectfully--including
treating me like I don't
exist--I don't have to go
through the emotional wear
and tear of trying to figure
out whether there was a
racist element to it or not.
I know it was about me
directly, or that this must
be how they tend to treat
all people, or that they're
having a bad day as such.
Whatever it's about, it
isn't about my color.
6. I have
the luxury of living all my
life in the dominant society
where the accepted norms are
what I grew up with, am
familiar with from birth, so
they all come naturally to
me and I can fall into them
as easily as breathing.
7. Even
though I am no more
intelligent than most
persons of color--and am
sure I'm less intelligent
than many--to another white
person I may sound more
intelligent because my
normal speech patterns are
the patterns of the dominant
society. I speak in a way
that is associated with
intelligence. My entire life
I've had the "advantage" of
hearing all around me the
accepted way of speaking
which gets one ahead in this
world and, therefore, it is
my natural way of talking.
(And in as much as I also
picked up aspects of a deep
Southern accent from an
African American woman who
took care of me from when I
was a few months old, I was
also re-trained not to speak
like her, but to speak the
way all the white people
around me did. I was put
into speech classes in the
second grade to try to erase
all traces of that accent.)
8. People
expect me to be well-spoken,
and they take it in stride
if I express myself
fluently. I don't have to
hear someone say with
surprise, "My goodness, how
articulate you are!" The
same with my writing: when a
person says they like
something I wrote, it isn't
accompanied by amazement
that I was capable of such a
thing.
9. As to
school, I went through the
educational system being
taught by teachers who
expected me to do well, and
who pushed me to do even
better. I never felt a
teacher had written me off
as a waste of time, or
believed I wasn't really
going to go anywhere with my
education anyway so why
bother with me. I always
felt they assumed I would
attend college.
10. I never
face the awkward situation
of being the director of the
department who, because of
my skin color, is mistaken
for the secretary, or of
being the professor at the
university who is assumed to
be the teaching
assistant--or any number of
other such predicaments. I
don't have to deal with the
question of how to work out
my own emotions about that,
or figure out how to behave
so that the person who made
the mistake isn't so
embarrassed that it impedes
what we need to accomplish
together.
11. When
I'm going to be meeting
people for the first time,
socially or as to work, I'm
never worried about how
they're going to take it
when they see I'm white. I
don't have to be in
situations, like on the
phone, where I wonder if the
person I'm talking to knows
my color and what will be
their response if and when
they realize I'm white; will
they treat me differently
and with less respect?
12. I go
home at night to a world
that is essentially the same
world I work in. I don't
have to know how to get
along both in my own
sub-culture and in the
dominant culture at the same
time. I don't have to
constantly figure out how to
negotiate the two and the
going back and forth between
them.
13. If I
want, I can pretty much live
my life among other white
people. Though I can chose
to do so if I want, I am not
forced, in order to make a
living and to buy the things
I need, to be in situations
where just about everyone
there is of a different
ethnicity, culture or
nationality than I am,
situations where I feel I
stick out like a soar thumb
because of my color.
14. I can
say "our country" and not
"this country". I have felt
my whole life that this is
my country, and it never
even occurred to me that
anyone born here could feel
differently, feel that
they're what amounts to a
foreigner living in a
country that's not really
theirs, even though they're
called citizens. Because
I've never had to experience
it, I don't think I can even
grasp the feeling people of
color had being
disenfranchised in the last
election. I have the basic
idea, but this still doesn't
mean I really know the
feeling.
15. When I
decide how to style my hair,
what clothing I want to
wear, I don't have to try to
play down the essence of
what I am to try to get
along and advance in the
dominant society. I've never
had the problem of "I'd
better not look too
Eurocentric or I might not
be able to keep my job!"
16. I can
dress poorly, look like hell
and not have to worry that
I'll be mistaken for a
derelict or a criminal. In
the fairly affluent
neighborhood where my
husband and I live, I
occasionally go out to take
care of some errand with my
hair a mess (we're talking
major bad hair day), no make
up, wearing something really
lousy, and I still don't
have to be concerned that
people will take me for a
homeless person and try to
give me a money or food.
17. I also
know that my facial
features, my type of hair,
the shape of my body parts
are pretty much this
society's accepted standard,
seen as reasonably
attractive by most people. I
have never felt even
briefly, let alone as a
constant thing in life, that
my features, hair, and some
body characteristics are
seen by their very nature as
ugly because of their
European quality.
18. I can
blend in, get lost in the
crowd so to speak, when I
want to because I have a
face and body type that are,
on the whole, fairly similar
to most others around me. I
can also stand out when I
want to. If I need to assert
myself about something,
lodge a complaint and get
some attention from a store
manager, for instance, I
don't have to go through the
humiliating ordeal of being
sloughed off and ignored,
made invisible in some way.
19. There
aren't a lot of negative
stereotypes of others of my
ethnicity which I have to
constantly contend with, and
that might stand in the way
of a person seeing me for
who I am. Though certainly
there are negative gender
stereotypes about women,
such as that we all get PMS,
are not so good at math or
science, etc., these things
are nowhere near what
persons of color have to
endure. I don't have to be
worried about people
assuming I'm stupid, low
class, over-sexed, and so
forth because that's what
"they" think "we" all are.
20. As a
white woman, I can exhibit
some of the characteristics
that have been made into
stereotypes about persons of
color and no one thinks
anything in particular of
it, good or bad! For
example, in a restaurant/bar
full of white people I can
laugh and carry on in a
fairly rowdy manner with
other whites without
customers at other tables
getting offended and
thinking we're loud and
uncouth because of our race.
I can also get out on the
dance floor and, because I
studied dance, express
myself well in time to the
music, and no one thinks
"She's Black so she's got
rhythm; they all do."
21. At a
job interview, I don't have
to go through the
excruciating "damned if you
do and damned if you don't"
situation where I have to
try not to appear stupid or
incompetent in any way
(knowing every moment that
they are ready to pounce on
and magnify the tiniest
slip)--while also trying to
make sure not to appear too
smart, as smart as the
interviewer, because then
they could be angry and
resentful and not hire me
either since they had
expected to be able to feel
superior to me!
22.
Speaking of job interviews,
when I write on an
application form that I've
never been arrested or
incarcerated, of course they
never question that--in
fact, I can only imagine how
shocked they'd be if I did
write yes to either! I've
never experienced what I've
heard described by African
American men: the awful
realization that the
interviewer doesn't believe
you so they keep bringing
the discussion back to it to
try to get you to admit you
were lying and that you
really do have a record.
23. As to
arrests and the lack
thereof, to put it bluntly,
the only reason I don't have
a record is the color of my
skin. In my late teens I had
a serious drug problem, and
I both consumed and sold
controlled substances of
many kinds. All over this
country there are persons of
color who are doing 30 years
and more for what I did and
walked away Scot free. Among
other things, this means
that when I stopped using
drugs I truly was able to
leave my past behind and
start afresh. I was not
faced, for the rest of my
life, with the grueling task
of figuring out how in hell
I would ever be able to live
down my former mistakes and
go on to earn an adequate,
ethical living with my
record dragging me down at
every turn.
24. In
general I go through my life
operating on the basic
premise that people are
going to trust me, not that
on the slightest
provocation--or even no
provocation--they will be
suspicious of me. I am very
aware that because of how I
look--my skin color being a
major aspect of that, along
with the fact I'm female and
fairly petite--I can go
places and get away with
doing things that even a
white male can't because I
appear so unthreatening.
A. For
example, when I climbed
over a garden fence to
use a building's garden
hose to water a dying
tree on the street, I
was consciously thinking
"I can do this because
I'm white and a woman
and no one is going to
question me"--and they
didn't.
B. In
stores where you aren't
supposed to try clothes
on over your own, I know
I can get away with it
(and do) because I'm
white and look very
middle class. I can
expect the people
working there to look
the other way, whereas
I'm not sure they would
if I were a woman of
color.
C.
There are all kinds of
things I know I can get
away with because I'm
white, like many years
ago I used to eat
cookies from open cookie
packages at the
supermarket. I knew I
wasn't going to be
accused--and I never
was, not even once--of
opening the package
myself. I can shop and
do things in a somewhat
irregular fashion and
not be suspected of
shoplifting which, as we
all know, is certainly
not the case with
persons of color.
D. When
I'm out on the street
and need a bathroom, I'm
very conscious of my
white privilege. I have
literally said to myself
"I am now going to
exercise my white
privilege" as I enter a
restaurant and purposely
give forth the
impression that of
course I'm there as a
customer so no one
should question me as I
simply head for the
bathroom and that's
that!
E. I
can walk up to persons
on the street and ask
for directions without
their feeling suspicious
that maybe I have an
ulterior motive. I am
ashamed to say that this
can still, at times, be
my first gut-reaction
when a woman who is not
white and speaks with an
accent comes up to me
and shows me a piece of
paper with an address
which she asks me to
help her find. Though
this has never been the
case, I can still be
afraid that while I'm
trying to read what's on
the paper or looking
around for a street
number, she might pick
my pocket or something.
The very attitude that I
can still occasionally
have in meeting another
woman, I don't worry
about being met with
myself.
F. I
can approach people
unexpectedly from
behind, be practically
on top of them in a tiny
building entrance, or at
the last moment jump
into an elevator with
them and not have to
read fear in their eyes
when they see me. Even
if someone's first
split-second response
when I suddenly appear
is fear, as soon as it
registers that it's me
they relax; I have never
seen a person grow more
frightened--just as I've
never had anything even
remotely resembling the
experience of observing
a woman clutch her purse
closer as she sees me
coming towards her.
25. If
anything happens to me on
the street--if I were to
become ill or trip and fall
down, for example--I can be
relatively sure that the
people around me will try to
help. They won't feel that
maybe there is something
wrong with me, that I'm on
drugs or drunk or up to no
good and they should keep
their distance. Just in
general, I can go through my
life expecting to be taken
seriously and for people to
be cooperative and helpful.
26. I also
live in relative sureness
about the safety of my
husband. I don't have to
worry that he might stop to
make a phone call in the
"wrong" neighborhood and get
attacked as some African
American men have been, by a
gang of whites, or that he
may be mistaken for someone
else and beaten or killed by
the police since, after all,
"they all look alike."
27.
Recently, when my husband
and I had a miscommunication
and he still wasn't home by
1:00 AM on a week-night when
he was usually home by 9:00
PM, I got so worried I
called a police precinct.
Even as I was grateful for
their courteousness, I was
aware that they may have
been so nice because I
sounded white and well
educated. I have my doubts
about whether I would have
been met so patiently and
helpfully if I had sounded
clearly other than white or
spoke with an accent.
28. I can
call the police with little
fear that I may end up being
their victim.
29. I can
easily access basic news
about things of particular
interest to me and my
community. I don't have to
find special avenues to get
information about the things
of specific relevance to my
people because the
mainstream press and media
either don't report on them
or report on them from a
flagrantly biased slant.
30. Until
recent years, I went around
with the self-assured
feeling that pretty much all
of what is considered the
important art of the
world--what is taught as the
great literature, paintings,
music, etc.--are by and
about people who were a lot
like me. I read my favorite
novelists such as Henry
James, Balzac, and Dickens,
and didn't even notice that
practically every character
was white, and that they
were about a way of life
that was familiar to me but
that may not have been so
familiar to persons of
another culture.
31. Without
realizing it, I went through
my life with the feeling
that essentially I was
looking "them" over and
deciding whether to let
persons of color into my
life. It never occurred to
me that maybe I should be
thinking about how I was
going to prove I deserved to
be let into their lives! I
expected that if I decided
to have to do with them, of
course they should be very
happy about that and
welcoming.
32. My
sense of white privilege
also extended beyond myself
to other white people. For
instance, I used to think
that African American
persons weren't nearly
grateful enough to the white
people who came down South
and fought along side them
during the civil rights
movement. I felt that of
course Black persons should
have been nothing but
grateful and I didn't ask
whether there might be more
to it than meets the eye.
Because all of us human
beings can be prone to
ingratitude, there likely is
some kernel of truth to this
criticism of African
Americans; however, I see
now that there is also a
great deal to question about
how we white persons work
with Black persons. There
can be such a tangle of good
and bad motives as we do
some useful things but with
such a paternalistic and/or
patronizing attitude that it
is very difficult for a
Black person to make sense
of where they should be
grateful and also rightly
critical.
33. I'm
ashamed that up until a few
years ago I still felt that
many Black persons were too
sensitive about racism; that
they sensed slights where
there weren't any. What this
means is that in my white
omniscience (read colossal
white arrogance!) I knew
even better than a person of
color what a racist incident
was and wasn't. Boy was I
wrong about that!
So these are my findings so
far. I'm sure there is even
more to see, and I plan to
keep on looking at the
subject.
|
|
|
|
|