About 20 years ago I was educated about white privilege. Until then, I was pretty proud of myself. We moved to an urban school district so that my daughter would experience the real world (she speaks Spanish like a native). Throughout my career, I hired mostly people of color. Every year, I required my daughter to accompany me to the Martin Luther King commemorative breakfast.
At one of these breakfasts, twenty years ago, a (white) Unitarian minister gave a speech on what it meant to be white; and everything changed. While there were many examples, some were:
- If I get stopped by a policeman, I probably did something wrong
- If I encounter a policeman, I do not fear for my life
- When I attend a function, I can be assured that most people look like me
- If I behave badly, I don’t represent a group of people, it is just me behaving badly
- If I don’t win the house that I was bidding on, it is because I was outbid (not because I am not wanted in that neighborhood)
The list goes on. But with each item, I realized my accomplishments were launched from an invisible white privilege springboard. And white privilege was something that could be invoked without even knowing it.
Look at the example of the Central Park dog walker. She was illegally walking her dog off leash when a Black American man asked her to put her dog on leash. When she hostilely refused, he began videoing her. She responded by calling the police and falsely accusing an “African American male” of threatening her. It backfired. His post went viral and she lost her job. In her apology, she indicated that she was not racist. I suspect that is correct, it is just that when she needed it, she invoked her white privilege.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Z2UpLmnsk
One of the most powerful explanations of white privilege was made in a 2017 video about a student race. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5fbQ1-zps
Before I understood white privilege, I could point to myself as a success story. While my parents paid tuition (it was inexpensive back then); I worked my way through college and graduate school. I was the first in my family to be awarded a Ph.D. and I worked HARD. I worked 7 days a week, long days that often went until 2 a.m. I was motivated and driven. But I had the heretofore unknown advantage of white privilege. Not in acceptances or scholarships or jobs. I got it from my parents and my culture who taught me that success was through education and hard work. I got it by seeing adults who looked like me (okay, they were men, but the same color) who had used their education to accomplish great things. My parents, relatives and other adults showed me the path to my success.
At the Republican National Convention, there were many stories of Black and Hispanic Americans overcoming odds to be successful. Good for them! But that doesn’t mean that everyone can. (Many had parents who taught them about the value of hard work and education.)
Isabel Wilkerson in her very powerful and painful book, Caste, The Origins of our Discontent, explains why Black Americans grew up not seeing the same path. Jim Crow laws limited any upward mobility. Any job above menial labor was closed to them, even in the North. Where there were opportunities, they were paid less.
It was the Indians who recognized that Blacks had been relegated to the same caste as their Untouchables (now called the Dalits). Like the Untouchables, Black Americans were prohibited from mixing with whites, from marrying outside of their race, were given inferior facilities and education, were required to treat whites with deference, while whites were expected to treat them as inferiors. One legislator stated that their goal was to make sure that “the lowest white person was higher than the highest black person.” Through a reign of terror, such as lynchings, false arrests, and harassment they kept Black Americans in fear. They passed discriminatory laws that prevented Black Americans from being successful. Sadly, the police were called upon to enforce these racist laws.
The Nazis were so impressed by the Jim Crow laws that they implemented some to oppress the Jews. Before the Final Solution, they followed American’s blueprint, taking away job opportunities, wealth, and confining Jews to the ghetto… sound familiar?
I urge you to take the few minutes to watch “the race.” Watch how some of the students saw that it was fruitless to race, other students wanted to win regardless of their advantages, and others tried to be supportive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5fbQ1-zps
There is a phenomenon in Psychology called Learned Helplessness. Learned Helplessness happens when animals or people who continue to be thwarted eventually “give up” and do not see an opportunity even when it is presented to them. In a typical human experiment, participants were exposed to loud, unpleasant noises and told to “press the lever” to stop the sound. Half of the participants had levers that worked and the other half had levers that did not work. All participants in the latter group gave up pressing the lever; even when they were given a second session (and the lever worked). The participants had learned that it didn’t matter what they did, so they quit trying.
Imagine what it is like to be told that it doesn’t matter what you do, you will be treated differently, not only from your experience but by your parents’ experiences and their parents’ experiences. Despite the elimination of Jim Crow laws, ubiquitous cell phones capture discrimination and harassment against Black Americans even today.
I am impressed by anyone who can “make it” through the system. But we must remember that we can only build ourselves up by our bootstraps if we are given boots.
Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.
joan says
Please email a copy of your column today to each of the county council members who voted against moving the statue. Thanks!
Angela Rieck says
Will do, thank you
Mary Hunt-Miller says
Wonderful article, Angela!
Bob Potter says
A powerful expression of America as it really is today. It has become glaringly apparent in the time of Covid 19 and Donald Trump that racism is still a fundamental reality in America 2020. Her reference to the anti-Jewish laws in Nazi Germany (and thereafter in the conquered countries) is compelling. My wife and I were invited to a session at a local school where African American teachers and administrators spoke to students about the realities of life in America. One senior school administrator related how she was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy because she was driving such a nice car and he thought she might have stolen it. Is this really the America we want? Each of us and all of us have the power to help change this reality.
Angela Rieck says
Thank you. It is so disappointing, after George Floyd; I, again, foolishly assumed that America was “woke.” But after Kenosha, it just feels hopeless.
Richard Marks says
Angela, thanks for this well written piece on privilege. Having spent time visiting refugee camps and serving on the UNHCR Board, I have been often known to say, “Everyday you awaken in this country, you are blessed”. Suffice to add that is not always true for everyone. We have begun to see the wealth disparity in our country and some conditions so challenging, if not insurmountable, that even given a pair of boots is scarcely sufficient. Which is not to suggest a handout, but to recognize the barriers are powerful and systemic. Perhaps we can achieve a better path for all by at least now recognizing our paths have far fewer obstacles simply by the color of our skin.
Angela Rieck says
Thank you, I wrote this after hearing so many people talk about how they were successful despite their situation, so why can’t “they” be… I find it amazing that some people can succeed against such insurmountable odds, poor education, few role models, etc. I look at Baltimore, where the only jobs are low paying, menial labor that barely keep them above water. It takes an extraordinary amount of courage and fortitude not to succumb to gangs and drugs.
James Brennan says
Thank you for the fine article Angela.
I came from a low income white household. Like you, I had to work my way through college, primarily by working unskilled jobs in the food service industry. In the 1970’s in northern New Jersey, that meant that most of my coworkers and managers were Black. The experience opened my eyes to a lot of what you describe, and it made me appreciate the privilege that even my white working-class upbringing had provided me, especially in terms of primary and secondary education. And to my parent’s credit, even though I was still a teenager, I felt empathy for many of my coworkers who I knew would experience lives that offered much less opportunity for success than mine.
Fifty years later, it seems to me that many of my neighbors lack that capacity for empathy. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us – our families, our communities, our institutions. Some of us should have a little more humility about how much of our success was provided by our birthright.
Angela Rieck says
Thank you. What a credit to your family that you were able to see their struggles. I am hoping that the majority of people will be willing to examine at our invisible white privilege and feel empathy for those who, by birth, weren’t given the same gifts that we were. Some people are sending the link to “the race”. That video is worth thousands of my words.