WHITE PRIVILEGE

 by Ruth A. Sheets

This past week, National Public Radio (NPR) presented interviews with white and Black voters separately.  I noticed some interesting differences between those interviews. 

The white interviewees were to a person, Trump supporters. They claimed “promises made, promises kept.”  I hear that line often, but no interviewer I have heard has asked them to clarify which promises made and kept.  In fact, there is no depth of questions or follow-ups at all, as if these people are children who cannot find depth in what they are thinking.  The interviewers allowed the interviewees to spout Trump phrases like “it is the Democrats who are causing all the violence, the Democrats are against the police, it’s Trump who really cares about us.”  The latter is possibly true, but even that is not supported with much evidence.  Where is the follow-up like “What gave you the idea that it is Democrats who are responsible for the violence, which Democrats would you say are against the police and how do you know, what makes you think Mr. Trump supports you?”  One of the interviewed said how she likes Trump even though her farm is suffering from the trade problems.  Trump is going to make it better, she added.

The interview with the Black persons was really quite different.  That may be because they were not monolithically attached to a particular candidate.  The man interviewed, hinted he might support a third party candidate, but not which one.  These interviewees were asked their response to what is going on and what the upcoming elections could do for the Black community.  They were encouraged to explain and clarify.  Their answers were not blaming, but looking for answers themselves.  The women said they would vote for Biden-Harris with reservations and described those reservations.  Their concerns were about the protests and that they demand and end to the systemic racism in the nation.  The interview was a bit uncomfortable for me as a White person who feels somewhat helpless in the face of their honest critique.  My discomfort with the all-White interview was the lack of depth and the unsupported loyalty to a known racist while blaming the victims for their opposition to the racism.

 The difference here shows part of the divide we as Americans face.  White Americans interviewed by journalists have rarely been expected to defend their thinking or actions, particularly if they had some prominence.  For generations, what White men wanted or said, especially if they had money and power, even in a small sphere, was gospel.  No one asked the white murderers of the African-Americans whom they lynched, why they did it.  Actually, they were rarely even charged.  All kinds of excuses were made up if it was even suggested these White men had committed crimes.  We know the lines, they were protecting their women.  They were securing their way of life.  Those N****rs deserved it; they were getting too uppity.  Those White folks never had to look deeper at their own fear that maybe they were not the be-all-to-end-all they wanted everyone to believe they were.  Keeping others down could make them feel bigger, smarter if they even thought about it at all. 

 This approach to White life has not disappeared over time.  The current White emperor is now in the white house.  He has surrounded himself with like-minded white men and a few women so they can keep up each other’s courage and share new ways to discriminate while calling it something else.  He sprinkled a few Black persons like Ben Carson into positions for which they are completely unqualified so he can point to them – look at the great things I have done for Black people.  “There is no president who has done more for Black people than me.”  His White supporters smile because now they know they are off the hook and are not racist at all, their leader said so.  Donald Trump isn’t racist either.  Those Democrats should stop saying he is.

The uncertainty and lack of trust expressed by the NPR Black interviewees is real and comes from a history of betrayal, exclusion, abuse, and dismissal.  Those in positions of power whose responsibility it is and was to protect  and serve the American people  have decided over time that Black Americans (as well as other people of color) are not worthy of that protection and service.

 White Americans have the privilege of actually blaming Black people without evidence.  We can claim things that are untrue because that’s how it has always been done.  Even White people with few resources or little education are heard with more weight than Black Americans at any income or education level.  White people in power will not acknowledge this because they honestly believe, again, without evidence, that they are the ones experiencing the racism by those Black “rioters,” those Black “troublemakers.”   It has been said that to those who have privilege, equality seems like oppression, and a lot of White people are feeling oppressed right now as people point out their privilege. 

 It is time journalists who choose to interview members of a privileged group in whatever setting go against trend and dig deeper, even if it means introducing or reintroducing the interviewee to an uncomfortable concept.  White people, in general, do not appreciate our privilege.  It comes to us at birth and we breathe it in with the air.  We see it in so many places we hardly notice except when we think we have been cheated in some way, not gotten our due.  White Americans have learned to find someone to blame for any exclusion:  not getting into the college we want, not making the deal we should have made, not winning the contest we should have won, and most of all, not getting the job we applied for.  When the person who got it is Black, we are privileged to be furious and to proclaim it to the heights.  Does anyone ever ask us “Why do you think you should have that rather than the person who now has it?  Not likely!  We commiserate and cry “token” or “affirmative action.”  And, we feel furious, then, resentful because we lost to someone we have been taught to consider inferior.

 To emphasize  Donald trump’s ignorance of his own white privilege, on September 5, 2020, he ordered that no Federal agency can use government money to pay for trainings that address white privilege, or anything that deals with race at all.  That is the cry of a scared White guy (SWG) who is afraid to face the fact that everything he has, came to him because of white privilege.  He would never have been able to get the loans he got for his properties.  He would never have been a public media figure.  His name would never have been worth money on the international market, and he would never have been elected president had he not been white.  That is really scary.  Donald Trump has few skills but lots of family money he could throw around to get whatever he wanted, particularly unwarranted media notice.  Now his power gives him that access. 

 Mr. Trump did not find out about these sensitivity trainings on his own because it is certain he never participated in one himself.  He was clearly informed by a Scared White Guy (SWG) who was “forced” to take the course.  He, possibly she was offended that anyone would even imply that he/she didn’t get where they are now totally on their own personal merit, but that whiteness most likely played a part, probably a pretty significant part.

 Black Americans know what they have been through.  They know about “the talk.”  They know about the looks they get in stores and the rejections they receive that are clearly based on race.  Houses and apartments have been denied them due to their race.  They have been the victims of people crossing to the other side of the street to avoid passing too close.  They have felt the pain of being considered inferior and informed they only got the job, the assignment, the place in college, etc. because of affirmative action.  And, they know their White colleagues resent them for it and regularly show it.

 It is we White people who don’t know.  We can read about the 400 years of physical and social bondage, the fear of but need  for the police, the prisons stuffed with Black husbands, sons, and brothers.  But, we cannot feel what that constant fear and rejection does to a person.  We can say “Black Lives Matter,” but we often feel the push of “all lives matter.”  Donald Trump and his base don’t want to be called racists, but generally do what racists do.  They believe white is better than all even though science tells us all that skin color determines nothing but skin color and the slight tendency to a few diseases.

 So, White people, we need to unite in listening to Black people, to believing their accounts of life among White people, in working to change our own attitudes and beliefs to move from our cultural racism.  We must take and support those training classes that expose white privilege and cause us to look at White privilege head on.  We need to take White off as the default setting for our lives.  We may not have created the white privilege society we live in, but we are certainly benefiting from it, yes, even the poor White folks among us. 

 It is time we work with Black Americans to move us all toward equality and fairness. White Americans are obsessed with the “pledge of Allegiance” but many of us forget the final words “liberty and justice for all,” not just White conservative Americans

 White privilege is real and impacts every person in this nation.  The task is to acknowledge it in all its forms, then note and face our fear and uncertainty, then stand up with Black Americans and shout to the heavens, “Black Lives Matter, and we are going to prove it by encouraging Black people to lead us all into a future where there will be no privilege because we will have lived up to our Truth that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  OK, fellow White Americans, take a deep breath, I know we are scared, but we can do this.  Remember, this is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”