[A-List] White Privilege

[tully <tully2@xxxxxxxxx>]

I learned a little about white privilege from being a white on an 
American Indian list.  Later on another list I came across a 
white woman who bemoaned how badly her family was treated by 
Indians when she lived on their reservation, where she was not 
wanted.  She asked, "Why can't they just wake up in the morning 
like the rest of us" and be colorblind?  

One of the most helpful ways I found to get some context on how 
people of color view the world was to try to put myself in their 
position, which I finally had to agree is quite impossible for a 
white to do, no matter how much of the subject they study or try 
to imagine how it would be.  It's just something our experience 
of white privilege can't allow us to fully see, or more 
importantly "feel."

The closest I ever got to understanding white privilege was 
greatly helped by an article like I found at 
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html 
which I've adapted to what I show below.  Whites can generally 
answer YES to all the following questions, but a person of color 
nearly always must answer NO.  

Try to imagine what it would be like if you had to answer NO to 
all these questions.  Would it be so easy to "just wake up like 
the rest of us" or might you wake up very aware of your color?  

1. Can I talk with my mouth full and not have people put this 
down to my color?

2. Can I swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer 
letters, without having people attribute these choices to the 
bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race?

3. Can I speak in public to a powerful male group without 
putting my race on trial?

4. Can I do well in a challenging situation without being called 
a credit to my race?

5. Am I never asked to speak for all the people of my racial 
group?

6. Can I remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons 
of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in 
my culture any penalty for such oblivion?

7. Can I criticize our government and talk about how much I fear 
its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural 
outsider?

8. Can I be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in 
charge", I will be facing a person of my race?

9. Can I arrange to be in the company of people of my own race 
most of the time?

10. Can I avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to 
mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me?

11. If I should need to move, can I be pretty sure of renting or 
purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I 
would want to live?

12. Can I be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location 
will be neutral or pleasant to me?

13. Can I go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured 
that I will not be followed or harassed?

14. Can I turn on the television or open to the front page of the 
paper and see people of my race widely represented?

15. When I am told about our national heritage or 
about "civilization," am I shown that people of my color made it 
what it is?

16. Can I be sure that my children will be given curricular 
materials that testify to the existence of their race?

17. If I want to, can I be pretty sure of finding a publisher for 
this piece on white privilege?

18. Can I be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in 
which I am the only member of my race?

19. Can I be casual about whether or not to listen to another 
person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of 
his/her race?

20. Can I go into a music shop and count on finding the music of 
my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple 
foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a 
hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair?

21. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, can I count on my 
skin color not to work against the appearance of financial 
reliability?

22. Can I arrange to protect my children most of the time from 
people who might not like them?

23. Do I not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic 
racism for their own daily physical protection?

24. Can I be pretty sure that my children's teachers and 
employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace 
norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' 
attitudes toward their race?

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax 
return, can I be sure I haven't been singled out because of my 
race?

26. Can I easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting 
cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of 
my race?

27. Can I go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to 
feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, 
outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared?

28. Can I be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of 
another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for 
advancement than to jeopardize mine?

29. Can I be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a 
person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is 
not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if 
my colleagues disagree with me?

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't 
a racial issue at hand, will my race lend me more credibility 
for either position than a person of color will have?

31. Can I choose to ignore developments in minority writing and 
minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from 
them, but in any case, can I find ways to be more or less 
protected from negative consequences of any of these choices?

32. Does my culture give me little fear about ignoring the 
perspectives and powers of people of other races?

33. Am I not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body 
odor will be taken as a reflection on my race?

34. Can I worry about racism without being seen as 
self-interested or self-seeking?

35. Can I take a job with an affirmative action employer without 
having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of 
my race?

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, need I not ask of 
each negative episode or situation whether it had racial 
overtones?

37. Can I be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing 
to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, 
professionally?

38. Can I think over many options, social, political, imaginative 
or professional, without asking whether a person of my race 
would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do?

39. Can I be late to a meeting without having the lateness 
reflect on my race?

40. Can I choose public accommodation without fearing that people 
of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I 
have chosen?

41. Can I be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race 
will not work against me?

42. Can I arrange my activities so that I will never have to 
experience feelings of rejection owing to my race?

43. If I have low credibility as a leader, can I be sure that my 
race is not the problem?

44. Can I easily find academic courses and institutions which 
give attention only to people of my race?

45. Can I expect figurative language and imagery in all of the 
arts to testify to experiences of my race?

46. Can I chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and 
have them more or less match my skin?

47. Can I travel alone or with my spouse without expecting 
embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us?

48. Have I no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people 
approve of our household?

49. Are my children given texts and classes which implicitly 
support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my 
choice of domestic partnership?

50. Will I feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of 
public life, institutional and social?

--tully