Yo, Is This Privilege?
Hello readers! My name is Jaysa Saylor and I would like to welcome you to my column. Today we are going to be discussing white privilege. Is it real? Is it offensive to white people? Is it woven into the very fabric of this country?
Privilege is defined as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available to a particular person or group.” Often privilege is synonymous with wealth or power, and I have found that many people in my family are instantly defensive if I mention the term “white privilege.” My grandfather’s side of the family is steeped in traditional conservatism. My mother, and most of her cousins, are emphatic liberals, who play rock, paper, scissors at Christmas time to see who is going to be the one turns a hardcore game of Euchre into a heated political debate. One year, my Great Uncle Steve threw a folding chair into a living room full of children after someone wouldn’t admit that Reagan was the best President of the modern era. Man, I love Walter Christmas parties.
On a recent visit to my grandfather, we got into a heated discussion about the current situation in our country today. I mentioned white privilege because I genuinely wanted to know his opinion. He is college educated man, with a Master’s in Education and a retired Columbus city high school teacher of 35 years. He tends to be more middle of the road then his other brothers, so I figured he would have something to contribute on this topic. Instead I was instantly met with a defensive response. “White privilege?! I was raised in a home with 8 children! No part of my childhood was privileged!” He went on his usual tangent about how far he walked I the snow to school, how he put himself through college on a pizza delivery man’s salary and graduated debt free from The Ohio State University. “But isn’t what you just explained to me an example of white privilege?”
We first need to identify what we mean when we say white privilege. White privilege doesn’t mean that your life wasn’t or isn’t hard. It simply means that your skin color isn’t one of the things making it harder. As I explained this to my Boomer grandfather, he asked me to provide specific examples to prove my point. Even though he is retired, he is forever a teacher. So, here we go.
- As a white woman, I have the privilege of having a generally good relationship with the police. I discussed this in one of my diary entries. A guy I am dating, who happens to be African American, was treated so poorly at a traffic stop on Kenny Road, that I reported the officer’s conduct to the Upper Arlington Police Department. I have never heard back so I’m sure it was just a simple slap on the wrist, if it was even addressed at all. We were driving back to his apartment after dinner and my lead foot got the best of me as it usually does. After we were stopped, we sat in the car for a long time. We weren’t approached by the officer until his backup arrived. They walked up on either side of the car and treated me like I was being held under some kind of duress. After I assured the officers that I wasn’t being held hostage and I did in fact know the man in my passenger seat, they let me go. Without a ticket. I would like to also mention I have been pulled over on this road multiple times, going well over the speed limit and not given a ticket once. If you are a person of color, it doesn’t matter if you comply with police. Putting your hands up, not resisting, saying “I can’t breathe,” doesn’t mean you will make it out of an encounter with the police alive. This is privilege.
- As a white woman, I have the privilege of having a white sounding name. According to a Harvard Business study, ethnic sounding names on a resume have less of a chance of getting an interview. They found that if they “whitened” the names of Asian and African American resumes, that 25% of African American applicants got calls for interviews (versus the 10% when they used their own name) and 21% Asian applicants got interviews (versus 11.5% when they used their own name). Preference in the workplace based on names instead of credentials, is privilege.
- As a white woman, I have the privilege of learning about my race in school. The history of the white Anglo-Saxon is embedded deep into American core curriculums. Yet, Black history and other ethnicities’ history are commonly electives at the college level. My high school did not offer any specific classes or electives that specifically taught or highlighted the history of any people of color. This is privilege.
- As a white woman, I have the privilege of finding children’s books that represent my race. In an NY Times op-ed piece by Walter Myers, he discloses that out of the 3200 children’s book published in 2013, 93 of them were about black people. Additionally, only 8% of the children’s books were written by or about people of color. This is privilege.
- As a white woman, I have the privilege of seeing the media portray their blatant bias for my race. When Brock Turner was caught viciously raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on Stanford’s campus, it gained international media attention. Turner ended up serving a 3-month sentence which wasn’t a fraction what he deserved. All we heard in closing arguments was how “20 minutes of action shouldn’t ruin his bright future.” Mike Brown was walking in the middle of the street and was murdered in cold blood because he “fit a description.” The media wasted no time in disclosing his criminal record and conveying how the actions of the officer were justified. A black man is killed, we hear about all the bad things he used to be. When a white man rapes, they tell us all about the great things he could become. This is privilege.
- As a white woman, I never have to worry about getting rejected for loans because the home I can afford is in a neighborhood or place considered a low financial risk. This practice was a direct action of the United States government to segregate people of color into specific neighborhoods yet make it impossible for them to qualify or attain home ownership. Redlining wasn’t deemed a discriminatory practice until 1968, but in major metropolitan cities like Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, there are very distinctive neighborhoods predominantly white and predominantly black still in existence. And now the inhabitants of these neighborhoods are facing gentrification and being forced out because they can’t afford new real estate and developments. This is privilege.
So, I asked my grandfather again. Is white privilege real? He reluctantly admitted that “people of color may have it a bit harder,” but that was the most I could get out of him. I guess I will take it. Because white privilege IS real and woven into the very fabric of society. The country was built on the very foundation of oppression and is meant to disenfranchise people of color. So where do we go from here? First, we need to admit that white privilege exists. That is the first step in changing the narrative.
My last tactic with my grandfather was to ask a question the great Jane Elliott asks whenever she gives speeches. If you are unaware of who Jane Elliott is, she is most famous for conducting the “brown eye, blue eye” experiment in her 3rd grade class in 1968 to prove that racism is taught. She is a civil rights activist who continues to advocate for equality for people of color. Anyway, Elliott always asks her congregation if, they, knowing what they know of our culture and society, would want to be a black individual in society today? So, I implore you, to answer this question honestly. My answer of course was no. As are most of the people she surveys. This is the ultimate proof of privilege. By answering no, I am indicating that I know what it means to be black in society today, and that I don’t want it for me. This is privilege. This is reality. And it needs to change.