Have we done enough? Honestly, my answer would be an emphatic “NO”. Since the death of Georgy Floyd, the world has come alive with shouts for reform in local, state, and federal government, and while the moment is electrifying, there has been a swift and deliberate counter-movement, whose goals can be very simply surmised with the phrase “too far”. I was elated when, in her interview, Claudia Rankine mentions a separate interview in which the interviewer asked her “But aren’t there places where you go too far?” to which she responds “Well, how? Do you mean when somebody says something racist to me, for me to call it out is to go too far?” It’s that sense of the decorum around receiving racism which makes absolutely no sense” which is a very mild way of putting it. Although this is only one singular instance, it very clearly illustrates the reality in which we currently find ourselves.
In spite of a world that is quite literally falling apart, we are – as Thomas puts it – “living in an America where history dictates that, even in the most absurd times, hatred and bigotry continue to reign”. Thomas’ description of the exceptionally unique fear of being a black man in a time where the law requires us to cover our face in public. Now, I read Thomas’ article after Rankine’s, so I had this new definition of privilege in my head which made Thomas’ article more difficult to read. And, truth be told, there is a point where what I feel can only be speculation because the fact of the matter is I will most likely experience “the fear of being mistaken for an armed robber or assailant is greater than the fear of contracting COVID-19” as Thomas so aptly describes such a deeply rooted, generational fear. That is the privilege that Rankine was speaking to, an existence free of worry, and a sentiment that Thomas echoes when he clarifies his definition of privilege: “White people think when I say white privilege I mean economic privilege but I mean white living. The ability to stay alive”.
He pairs his experience with his observations on whiteness, especially as it has been viscerally exposed within the past months. But I think the most important part of this article is his view of whiteness, and its need to remain unnoticed, unchallenged: “There’s a deep psychological need for whiteness to go unexamined. White people have one understanding about what whiteness is and to trouble it is to trouble them. And they cannot hold it, they really cannot bear it, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with me”. This is becoming increasingly apparent with the increased attention turned towards politics. I saw this sentence come to life over the summer when I saw a clip of Nancy Pelosi, exasperated and frazzled, when a group of immigration activists disrupted a press conference on the pending DREAM Act. The look of shock on her face was surpassed only by her inability to comprehend why, in her mind, the people she was trying to help were actively interrupting her attempts. That was the instance I saw this quote come to life.
It’s clear that the personal has become political, and vice versa, and because of that the notion of white privilege has started to seep out into the open, into the personalities and the political (unquestionably so in this regard). And because of this, there has been a frantic scramble to bring people together in the face of COVID because privilege is being publicly tried, and the verdict isn’t looking so good. Benjamin acknowledges this as she writes “But as a soundbite, the idea that “viruses don’t discriminate” conceals the fact that the virus is not simply a biological entity, but a biopolitical reality which travels along well-worn patterns of inequity”. She brings up the idea of “well-worn patterns of inequity” which honestly makes me worry about anything that comes from this well-worn pattern is destined to replicate those inequities, regardless of intention. My concern is that something like Critical Race Theory is going to be limited in what it is allowed to accomplish because it came from something as raced as politics.
So, then, here are my questions for you all:
- What will CRT or Black Lives Matter or any other field of study or movement be able to effect systemic change before it gets silenced for ‘going too far’? Or does the very idea of systemic change threaten white privilege so much that even the idea of ‘change’ is going too far?
- What’s keeping white privilege alive?
Sebastian – thank you for a wonderful blog post, and especially for your question of “What’s keeping white privilege alive?” I have been thinking about this question a lot as I wrestle with the news of Donald Trump’s “1776 Project,” what it means for me as an educator, and the impending sense of doom that I’ve felt since the first Republican debate in September 2015. In a nutshell, I think the immortality of white privilege lacks in both a lack of knowledge and discussion about class, as well as the continued segregation of American society.
As the interviewer in the Rankine piece attests, while “the US is much more sophisticated in the discussion about race, but class is often neglected.” I see this all the time, in my students and in myself. I will happily identify myself as White, female, Italian-American, cisgender, and bisexual to anyone who asks–and a lot of these can be assumed anyway–but I still hesitate to describe myself as “upper class.” Part of this is because the way class works is so insidious — I could describe myself as “middle class” based on my occupation or “working class” based on my neighborhood, and both could ring true–but that doesn’t acknowledge how my parents’ income and level of education offered me immense privileges, like attending a good high school and graduating undergrad debt-free, that still reverberate today. Most Americans, including myself, don’t even have a good definition of what class is, and that makes it next to impossible to even start conversations about it. As a result, it’s easy for White individuals to lose sight of how their race privilege subsumes their class privilege (or lack thereof), which leaves us gullible to a demagogue born with a silver spoon who lives a gilded life yet professes to be “one of us.” This tendency of leaders with class privilege to identity as an “Average Joe” while simultaneously using inflammatory rhetoric to wedge racial divides in the working class is as American as apple pie, dating back to Bacon’s Rebellion. Like White supremacy itself, it is something that is uncomfortable for most White Americans to talk about–and therefore an invisible thread, controlling our society.
More than that, however, I think the lack of awareness around White privilege stems from the systematic and racist structures of our society. The combined legacy of housing segregation and academic segregation means that most White people have very few opportunities to meaningfully interact or make friends with people of color (the wonderful NPR podcast Codeswitch tackles this in the episode: “What About Your Friends?”) Furthermore, issues of representation and cultural segregation, as Gates explores, means that White people don’t regularly come in contact with even media that really explores what it means to be Black in America (outside of a sanitized history where Rosa Parks and MLK single-handedly led the Civil Rights Movement and also ended racism, hooray). As a result, most White people have never thought about race, period– much less through the lens of personal relationships or meaningful and three-dimensional media, which is far more impactful than just studying history. So why does White privilege still exist? By design–to maintain the same system that leads to White supremacy.
Sebastian!
Great post, a lot of interesting thoughts in here.
In response to your question of what can be accomplished, my genuine hope would be that this time any of these movements will actually make real headway. The unfortunate thing that all of us need to consider is that a real uprising of the government seems imminent. Any other course of action is just going to propel us back into the same thing as we’ve always done. It’s on all of us to keep the pressure up and ever increasing through these protests and the like. If we let it die for one instant people are going to let themselves be pushed back into the corner by whatever is easier. Right now in this pandemic nothing is easy, but especially not for POC. So what can we do? I think we’re doing some of it. But it’s going to be getting the government and reporters attention back on the issues and not let them be side stepped. It’s because of this side stepping and the want for “normalcy” that has allowed for white supremacy to continue all this time.
Sebastian-this was a very intriguing blog post, and I feel that one of your questions will really grab the reader’s attention. The question, ‘What will CRT or Black Lives Matter or any other field of study or movement be able to effect systemic change before it gets silenced for ‘going too far’? Or does the very idea of systemic change threaten white privilege so much that even the idea of ‘change’ is going too far?’, is the question that will grab the reader’s attention and will make them think.
Based on your post, I believe that this swift and massive push for change is threatening white privilege because movements like Black Lives Matter are asking for the silencing of white privilege. Since the death of George Floyd, there has been a massive rise in the number of protesters worldwide and the deaths of Georg Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Daniel Prude may have sparked the movement. Aaron Thomas said in his opinionated article, “my voice of self-protection reminded me that I, a Black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandana covering the greater part of my if I also expect to walk out of that store”.
What we can say from this is that we as Americans are creating a society full of scared individuals and I believe that we should not have to live in a country of fear because that takes the word ‘United’ out of the United States of America. Sebastian’s blog post has done a great job of opening up that conversation.
What a wonderfully written and thoughtful post, Sebastian. The array of articles and interviews created in 2020 were enlightening and even more so when considering how the virus amplifies Black oppression. In the interview with Rankine, she states that, “I think the quarantine has allowed us to really sit with things, as a culture” in response to the events proceeding after George Floyd’s death. This well and fine and helps reveal the disgusting stereotypes that persist in America for all to see, but what is important now is how we react to them. We can do this by teaching ourselves, acknowledging and supporting Black art for being Black art instead of treating it as purely a political window for understanding oppression, supporting black-owned small businesses, and recognizing that pointing out racism and legacies where it is blatantly present is not going “too far”. This why, in my personal opinion, CRT and Black Movements will be able to achieve more of their goals with all the loud voices saying their name possibly loud enough to block out the system’s white privilege. This is not to say that it can all be ignored. White privilege has created deep-rooted blockades which leads to your second question of why it still exists. Whites live in comfort knowing that they don’t have to second-guess walking to the supermarket with a bandana covering half their face. When POC and minorities are given the chance to speak up and ask them to stay silent as they do, Whites becoming threatened in facing their inherent narcissism. As election season rolls in, this is why voting becomes crucial in restructuring the government.
Hi Sebastian,
I enjoyed reading your blog post and I think you did a great job discussing white privilege! I especially liked that you included Rankine’s definition of white privilege: “White people think when I say white privilege I mean economic privilege but I mean white living. The ability to stay alive”. I think that white people have attempted to override the true meaning of white privilege by dismissing white privilege to be simply an economic privilege. However, white privilege is a societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people. It is a privilege where white people do not have to fear for their lives because of their skin. Rankine states “None of us should have to be living with the precarity of [thinking that] maybe if we leave our house, we will be shot for no reason at all simply because of the colour of our skin”. When a white person only views white privilege as an economic privilege rather than a societal privilege, they are unable to fully comprehend what white privilege really is. They are unable to truly grasp the fact that as a white person they are able to not feel like their life is in danger because their skin color is white. When a white person cannot understand white privilege in its complete definition then he or she will never be able to understand the inequalities and injustices embedded in our society. To answer your second question, I think what is keeping white privilege alive is the fact that our country, our political, social, and economic systems are founded upon racial inequalities and injustices. Overtime, these systems have poorly attempted to fix these inequalities, however, they never fixed the issues from the core. They only tried to cover up the issues at the surface. White privilege will stay alive and keep growing as long as the racial inequalities and injustices are embedded in our systems.
Hi Sebastian,
I enjoyed reading your blog post and I think you came up with some great questions for us to talk about! While reading your blog post I couldn’t help but think about one of the quotes from Thomas’s article, “I’m a black man living in this world. I want to stay alive, but I also want to stay alive… I thought that I could use one of my old bandanas as a mask. But then my voice of self-protection reminded me that I, a black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandana covering the greater part of my face if I also expect to walker out of the store.” This quote immediately made me think of white privilege. The reason I thought of white privilege when I read this quote is that white people don’t ever have to think twice when it comes to leaving the house with a mask on. White people never have to fear going into a grocery store, with a homemade mask on, and not making it back out of the store. This just stands out to me as deep-rooted white privilege. I also liked that you included Claudia Rankine’s definition of white privilege in your blog post, “white people think when I say white privilege I mean economic privilege but I mean white living. The ability to stay alive.” I think Rankine’s definition of white privilege easily fits with Thomas’s quote about fearing he wouldn’t make it back out of the grocery store wearing a handmade mask or one of his old bandanas. White privilege is based around the ability to stay alive and the ability to feel safe and comfortable in their own skin. But white people don’t view white privilege this way. White people tend to view white privilege as economic privileges. They don’t see white privilege as feeling safe in their own skin or their ability to stay alive. In Benjamin’s video, “Black Skin, White Masks: Racism, Vulnerability, and Refuting Black Pathology,” she talks a lot about how racism distorts our vision and how anti-blackness continues to distort our vision as well. The section Benjamin’s video that stood out to me the most was the section where she talked about the pandemic and how during a threatening virus we should be working together to unify all people of all backgrounds, but instead, we are still struggling to do so as long as anti-blackness is distorting our vision. Benjamin also brings up how black people are not only trying to survive this pandemic, but also the everyday racism of a sick society. How everyday black people are trying to protect themselves from a viral infection by wearing a mask, but are still not immune from racism. To answer your question “What is keeping white privilege alive,” I think what is keeping white privilege alive is the fact that our country is built upon racial, social, and economic injustices, which continue to keep white people on top. What keeps white privilege alive is white people misunderstanding what white privilege is and misunderstanding what makes us privileged. White privilege will stay alive as long as white people continue to misunderstand their privilege and misunderstand what it means to be privileged.
Hi Sebastian,
I really enjoyed reading your post, and I thought that the quotes you shared from the readings were extremely relevant to the conversation at hand. To your question about if BLM will be silenced because of the movement going “too far,” my answer would be that as change is implemented (good and bad), the media will have heavy influence on that outcome of that change. Unfortunately, the dominant narrative in the media regarding BLM has been the instances where excessive violence is present in protests. While this is of course relevant footage to cover, the very notion that it’s given more media attention than the peaceful, constructive protests means that the notion of “too far” has not only been created as a result, but also has been discussed more than the good that is actively being done through BLM. I think a change in focus in media coverage to innovative movements in BLM is a very practical solution to erasing the discussion of going “too far,” but unfortunately I don’t see the practicality of it, as many media platforms are constantly searching for more attention grabbing topics more than they are looking to helpfully inform the public about social justices. In addition, I think narratives like Aaron Thomas’ are what we need to see more of in media coverage. For me personally, reading that was eye opening to issues that black people will endure that I unfortunately would have never thought of if not otherwise informed. What might simply seem like a small narrative (because it only covers one man’s story) could really bring real social change if displayed enough in news coverage. Noting what you quoted from Thomas’ article, Sebastian: “White people think when I say white privilege I mean economic privilege but I mean white living. The ability to stay alive,” I want to say that while white people might be experiencing the daily fear of death due to COVID, black people have experienced the fear of death under much different circumstances for their lifetime, just because of the society that they lived in. As we all suffer from fear and even deaths during the pandemic, it would be wise for a white person to consider the psychological toll that the dear of death can cause, which so many black people have endured throughout their lifetime.
Hi Sebastian!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post and thought it was extremely powerful and well-written! I think it was extremely important that you mentioned the point of how white people think white privilege is associated with economic privilege when it’s really a societal privilege. I believe that the white people who think white privilege only relates to the economic aspects of society are not educated on the subject enough and have no idea what it means to have white privilege really means. Because of their misunderstanding of how white privilege effects the people in our society, they are close-minded and only seeing it through their own point of view. They are blind to the fact that white privilege is the reason why they aren’t having to live their everyday lives in fear because their skin color is white and were born into white privilege. So, if a white person doesn’t understand what it means to have white privilege in our society, they will never understand anything about the discrimination and inequality that our society has created for others. So, white privilege is being kept alive by our traditional patriarchal system that has initially set up our social, economic and political system to be based on inequalities and discrimination of race, gender and sexuality. Basically, if white people continue to think of white privilege as something that strictly relates to economic inequality and nothing else, white privilege will stay alive and not change for the better.