I was home last night in time to watch the exciting end of the women’s basketball national championship game. While I have never been a fan of Duke’s men’s basketball team, I’ve always liked Gail Goestenkors, the Blue Devils’ women’s coach. I like her intensity and her passion, and I am chagrined that she can’t seem to "win the big one." (Then again, folks used to say the same things about Mack Brown in football and Roy Williams in men’s basketball, and they finally broke through.) Duke’s 6′7" center Alison Bales was my favorite player in the tournament this year, and in my heart, succeeded in replacing my idol from last season, Liberty’s Katie Feenstra. (No, don’t get all analytical on me and discuss my admiration for very tall, muscular women who can dominate in the paint.) In 2007, my favorite will probably be the scarily good Courtney Paris, who I thought had a chance to lead Oklahoma all the way this year.
Anyhow, I want to return — more seriously this time — to the subject of race. Last Friday, I posted this rather flippant (but partly sincere) ode to my WASP upbringing. In the comments section, Aldahlia reposted some provocative questions (written originally by Lauren from Feministe) for those of us who acknowledge our whiteness:
1. what does it mean to be white? what does it mean to be White?
2. how has whiteness affected your worldview?
3. how has whiteness affected your educational experience?
4. how has whiteness affected your experience with authority?
5. how has whiteness affected your experiences with people of other races and ethnicities?
Asking the first question with and without "white" in capital letters is a good and provocative start. I’ve understood the lower case "white" to refer to external perceptions about my race and heritage. Folks look at me, and they see a man who is, unquestionably, white. They may not be able to tell I have a mix of English, German, Jewish, Scots-Irish, and Welsh ancestry, but my facial features instantly identify me as looking like the same sort of folks who traditionally have power in this country.
I wrote about some of the specifics of my WASPiness last week. Yes, class and geographic location played a role in my upbringing. I have cousins in South Carolina and Virginia who share my ethnic background, but grew up with slightly different cultural signifiers than I did. (For one thing, in my California family, the first alcoholic drink any of us ever have is white wine; for my southern relatives, it’s bourbon or Irish whiskey.) But when folks look at me on the street, they can’t tell whether I was raised in Carmel or in a trailer park; whether my parents were professors or plumbers. What they can tell is that I’m a white man, and that gives me certain privileges.
When I was in college, all of my advisors looked like me. With the exception of the Chicano Studies courses I took with Norma Alarcon and Cherrie Moraga, every single professor I had as an undergrad or a grad student was European or European-American. In grad school, I could easily have passed as the son of most of my faculty advisors, all of whom were white men (with the exception of the wonderful Marilyn McCord Adams, about whom I must post soon). Thus it wasn’t hard for me to imagine myself becoming just like these men and women someday — and it wasn’t hard for them to see me as a younger version of themselves. Did that have an effect on my confidence? Hell yeah.
When I walked around the Berkeley campus (or the UCLA campus, or anywhere else), no one ever looked at me with a querying "what are you doing here?" People who shared my sex and my skin color founded these universities and run them to this day. I felt an absolute and unerring sense of entitlement whenever I walked through the quads or under Sather Gate. It wasn’t arrogance, but rather a kind of confidence that came from always being seen as someone who "belonged". My friends of color could not report the same set of experiences!
In countless ways, my white skin (as well as my sex and my class background) have opened doors for me. In my life, I’ve been insecure about many things (my neurosis about working out and staying trim gets well-documented ’round here). But I’ve never, ever, doubted that I belonged anywhere that I went. I’ve had many "encounters" with law enforcement over the years, ranging from speeding tickets to getting 5150ed a few times in my late adolescence and twenties. Even when my own behavior was self-destructive and bizarre, even when I needed handcuffs, I was always, always, always, called "sir." (The last time I drank, many years ago, I remember being briefly handcuffed by a young deputy. I slurred something along the lines of "I’m not gonna hurt you, buddy"; he laughed and said with remarkable and memorable gentleness, "Sir, we just don’t want you to hurt yourself any more.") I’ve had black and Latino friends whose self-destructive behavior approximated my own — and they report very different stories of often violent (or at the least, rude) treatment at the hands of the police.
When I walk into a store in a nice neighborhood, even if I’m in jeans and a t-shirt, clerks ask "May I help you, sir?" I don’t have security guards following me around, wondering if I’m going to shoplift. When I walk down the street at night, women don’t cross over to the other side to avoid me. Is all of this because I’m such a swell guy? Of course not. I’m a reasonably clean-cut white man, and my skin color opens doors and puts people at ease without my having to say a word. That’s unearned privilege.
I’m not ashamed of being white. I would not renounce either my skin color or my background, even if I could. (Though I wish I wasn’t as prone to skin cancer as I am!) As I wrote last Friday, I love my family and my heritage very much. I love the particular traditions and rituals that I associate with growing up the way I did. I have no patience with those who say that in order to be effective allies to people of color, whites have to entirely renounce their whiteness. But while I won’t apologize for my upbringing, I can take positive action to renounce my privilege. There’s a huge difference between being ashamed of one’s family or skin color (which I’m not) and working actively to end one’s own unmerited advantages.
The most effective thing white folks can do, I think, is admit that privilege actually exists. I have no idea how many doors opened for me because of what I look like, and because of my family background. When I was first hired at PCC, several people actually said to me "You’re lucky to have gotten that job, Hugo! I’m surprised they didn’t hire someone of color using affirmative action. At least you know you got this on your own merits!" On my own merits? Puhleeze! I looked like two-thirds of my hiring committee! I looked like the professors who had mentored me and looked out for me! I went to the same university that my parents, grandparents, and great-grandfathers did! Any unearned advantage conferred by affirmative action pales in comparison to those unmerited privileges bestowed upon me by my appearance and my background! Of course, I was also hired for my teaching skills and my academic preparation. My color and class would not, in and of themselves, have canceled out actual incompetence. But they may well have tipped the scales in my favor when I was given this job I love a dozen years or so ago.
I’ll say it again: I’m not ashamed of my ancestors, my family, or my skin color. But I don’t deny that these things gave me advantages I didn’t earn. What whites need to do is stop perpetuating the myth that our personal successes are entirely unaffected by these privileges. Whenever possible, we need to cop to the reality of these unearned benefits. We need to embrace programs that seek to level the playing field (such as affirmative action) without complaint or bitterness. And we need to stop insisting that all of our achievements were based solely on the content of our character, and not also in part on the color of our skin.
As did the overwhelming majority of applicants who DIDN’T get the job. Your point?
Good post. When I went to PCC it was a collection of white (albiet eccentric) profs, some of whom were openly racist, indeed there was a scandal involving denying a black prof tenue by another prof who lectured on “blacks moving into neighborhoods and subsequent housing price drops”, In one of my classes some students were so racist toward black the prof had to remove them. I would have not wanted to have been a black student at PCC. (I hope this has changed).
At university I did not believe I was privilage becuase I was wrapped up in my whole finding my identity-having my own issues junk - now I look back and realize that I lived within a sheltered cushion. In Texas I was on Greyhound when a sherriff stopped the bus to demand from every hispanic that they “prove they were american” (I was not an american, but then again, I was not asked, was I). I lived above San Marino, a well known district near Pasadena which would routinely pull over blacks for….being in a rich white district. I could walk where I pleased, get a job because I looked “Trustworthy” or “eager” (read “White &” before that) - I was not followed by store security when I went shopping, I had people greet me with a smile instead of a glare of suspecion, I had police make sure I was “safe” instead of making sure I “wasn’t up to no good”.
One of my lessons I learned from a PCC prof was how not to laugh at racial jokes in order to fit in - he talked openly about ways to respond that make it clear that there is behavoir that is unacceptable. It wasn’t part of the cirriculum but I’m glad someone was there to teach us how to make a start.
X, the point is not that white skin alone got me the job. Then again, black skin doesn’t automatically get anyone a job, fulminations by anti-affirmative action zealots to the contrary. Background and privilege function the way affirmative action does — to add “extra points” to a candidate’s application.
Any unearned advantage conferred by affirmative action pales in comparison to those unmerited privileges bestowed upon me by my appearance and my background!
this is a great and succinct way of putting it. thanks, because i’m sure i’ll use this in future debates…
My favorite “DWB” (driving while black) type incident had to be when some lame-ass Ladue (fawncy White St. Louis suburb) policeman chased a middle aged black man and his wife out of an oriental rug store because he wasn’t going to buy anything. The man was Gerald Early, American studies professor at Washington Univ (styles itself the Haavaaad of teh Midwest), multiple books, opeds every few months in the NYTimes, etc. - perhaps the best known humanities professor in the city. I assume he was in collegiate tweedy dress. Well, naturally, he wrote about this incident in the national press - and just as naturally, St. Louis whites started whining, but we aren’t racist…
Sounds like your experiences in college were much like mine. Here’s a contrasting experience which brought home for me the advantages I had in academic settings.
http://blackademic.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-black-pain.html
Posts like this are why I added you to my RSS aggregator. Excellent read about something I’ve never really thought about because I never had to.
Hugo, this is off-topic, but is there a way to subscribe via RSS to the comments posted to your blog? I’ve never used or read a typepad blog, and the “support” section in typepad.com only addresses RSS feeds for a blog.
Luke, I don’t even know what RSS is.
Oh, Uzzah, thanks for the link — I hadn’t read Nubian’s post, and it is indeed a powerful contrast.
Luke: what RSS aggregator are you using?
Hugo: RSS = really simple syndicate. bloglines.com is a good basic example.
“And we need to stop insisting that all of our achievements were based solely on the content of our character, and not also in part on the color of our skin.”
And how would you propose discerning which achievements were based in part on the color of our skin? If I’m going to be damned for deriving benefits from some ephemeral social construct, I’d like to be damned for actual benefits and not the perceptions of ignorant third parties.
No one is damning anyone, David. What my skin color, class, and background have given me is a sense of certainty, a sense of belonging, and near-universal respect when I walk into a classroom, a department store, or get pulled over by a cop. Those are not ephemeral benefits.
Who said “alone?” My point is that white skin didn’t help you get the job at all. In fact, it worsened your odds.
No one said black skin alone gets anyone a job (or did, prior to Prop 209). A completely unqualified black applicant probably wouldn’t have gotten your job, but a marginally qualified one would have had a decent shot, and a black applicant with the same qualifications of you would have been a shoo-in.
Yes, apart from the minor detail that affirmative action exists in the real world, while bonus points for background and “white privilege” exist only in your imagination. The only candidate who would have had an easier time getting your job than a black Hugo Schwyzer would have been a black Hugo Schwyzer who could point to a disadvantaged background.
Note that I’m not knocking the latter form of affirmaive action; I think people should get bonus points for overcoming demonstrated adversity rather than merely playing the race card. I’m merely pointing out that to the extent background plays a role in hiring (especially in a post-209 era), bad backgrounds count for more than good ones.
Yes, apart from the minor detail that affirmative action exists in the real world, while bonus points for background and “white privilege” exist only in your imagination.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/resume.html
Just FYI, I was hired well before Prop 209…
“What my skin color, class, and background have given me is a sense of certainty, a sense of belonging, and near-universal respect when I walk into a classroom, a department store, or get pulled over by a cop.”
So, how much of that is attributable to your honkey quotient, versus your wallet or upbringing? Would you care to hang a percentage on it?
Excellent post. You’ve really opened my eyes, sadly they were all but closed before. I’ve never thought of affirmative action as a good thing for anyone, but I you make a great point.
My only question is, when will it end? Do you think there will be a time when we no longer need affirmative action? Or do you think we will only achieve that in hundreds of years, when race no longer exists as such (when we all look like the new Betty Crocker)?
“Affirmative action” (as we call it in the US) is always instituted as a temporary measure to correct unfair disparities. I believe that it was envisioned as a ten-year effort when LBJ instituted it 45 years ago. In most other countries that use racial and class preferences in hiring, housing, and education, the beneficiaries are the majorities, who resent very successful minorities. These majorities always manage to find good reason to retain the preferences. In a few nations, such as America and India, a principled majority instituted preferences to assist minorities. India made the mistake of placing a twenty-five year time limit on the program. When the time came for the program to end, violent demonstrations by the privileged “tribes and classes” killed a lot of people and destroyed a great deal of property. The riots continued until Parliament renewed the preferences - I believe without a specified termination date this time.
So there is one thing that you can count on: A group receiving preferences quickly becomes addicted to them, and there will never be a time when they conclude that the preferences are no longer needed. I would be glad to hear of counter-examples, but I don’t think it has never happened, and is thus not going to happen here. (When the Supreme Court decides to enforce the fourteenth amendment, and there are NO protests about it, then we will have seen AA achieve its purpose and go away. It will not happen.) It’s a quicksand policy, and escape is difficult or impossible.
Sophonisba, your point is taken. My reference to “the real world” was a bit too broad, the basic point being that in Hugo’s world - applying for a teaching job at PCC - it is highly unlikely that any imaginary “white privilege” helped him get the job, and more likely that it hurt his chances.
Xlrq and Sophonisba, there are stereotypically “white” names that would have the same sort of effect as a stereotypically “black” name in hiring. Imagine Hugo competing for his job against someone whose legal name was “Billy Bob Johnson”, even if Billy Bob had slightly better qualifications. (Or imagine “Chauncey Smythe” against “Andre Jackson” or “Juan Rodriguez” for a blue-collar job.)
Admittedly, the white examples are less common, but the signal sent by a name like “Tamika” or “LaShawn” isn’t entirely a racial one, it’s also a class signal, which may matter more for employers.
“Unearned white privilege” is a myth.
In my experience any privilege that contemporary whites (at least white males) enjoy they’ve most certainly earned. However, I would argue that on-balance, people of color and women have a lot more of the type of “unearned privilege” Hugo and others discuss, both good and bad. “DWB” is one kind of “unearned privilege,” as is affirmative action. Similarly, the stereotypes that result in whites being blamed for slavery and racism is “unearned privilege.”
As I said, “unearned white privilege” for the most part is a myth, IMO designed to facilitate perpetuating the white liberal guilt trip.
FWIW, the original questions came from me. I’ll see if I can somehow drudge up the list or responders (of which there were plenty, and lots of good reading) from P6.
Lauren, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to credit you. I’ll update that in the original post.
I got here via Public Quaker, and I’m glad I took the time to read your post and the many comments that follow.
I finally remembered this comment that someone shared with me. I learned it with a certain president’s name in the sentence, but feel free to insert any name of someone who is white, straight, and wealthy who thinks she or he doesn’t have any extra privilege:
George W. Bush was born on third base, and he thinks he hit a triple!
My first encounter with any sort of privilege that I have, as a white woman, was when I was working as a sign language interpreter for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. WoW, I had not realized how much “power” there is in simply having access to information, either because you overhear a conversation with information that is relevant to your situation; or because English because is your first language and so you can easily read the papers that give instructions; or just because you don’t have an extra step to go through, like finding an interpreter, and having information “relayed” back and forth, not always reliably so…
Those professional experiences ten years ago were eye-openers for me, and I haven’t been the same since… in a good way!
Blessings,
Liz, The Good Raised Up
From David Thompson:
“If I’m going to be damned for deriving benefits from some ephemeral social construct, I’d like to be damned for actual benefits and not the perceptions of ignorant third parties.”
HA! Welcome to the sexist, racist world I live in every day.
From Mr. Bad:
“In MY experience any privilege that contemporary whites (at least white males) enjoy they’ve most certainly earned.” (Emphasis mine.)
HA! I’m frequently sardonically amused by this type of commentary (when I’m not having to work anonymously so that whatever a prospective employer might think of my race & sex doesn’t factor into what they would offer for my actual work — thank goodness for the Net) as it’s analagous to:
“I’ve never seen Chicago, therefore Chicago doesn’t exist.”
Lydia: So there is one thing that you can count on: A group receiving preferences quickly becomes addicted to them, and there will never be a time when they conclude that the preferences are no longer needed.
RESPONSE: I agree. So, if that is true is that why white America’s are so resistant to other people. Have they been receiving preferential treatment for so long that even with the wealth that they amassed from free labor, the land that was robbed, every media station, and most company they (white’s) have become so addicted that they will never believe that they should not always be preferred?
Anthony: In my experience any privilege that contemporary whites (at least white males) enjoy they’ve most certainly earned.
RESPONSE: So, how did those white men earn their whiteness? When you are born a white man in a white man’s world where the entire is system is set up, by you, for you, and in favor of you aren’t you suppose to succeed?
HUGO: Yes, apart from the minor detail that affirmative action exists in the real world, while bonus points for background and “white privilege” exist only in your imagination. I think people should get bonus points for overcoming demonstrated adversity rather than merely playing the race card. I’m merely pointing out that to the extent background plays a role in hiring (especially in a post-209 era), bad backgrounds count for more than good ones.
RESPONSE: That fact that you have concluded who and how “points” should be awarded is an indication of white privilege. You’ve missed a salient point. And, I wonder how you missed it. Affirmative Action was not created because black people were less qualified, it was created because even when the black person was the MOST qualified a white person was the preferred choice. The fact that these discussions never include blacks that were neither poor, nor traumatized, and are competent and educated are passed over quite often is a reflection of privilege.
The fact that you believe that these are “your” jobs to take or that someone is getting access to “them” is a reflection of privilege.
On the “race card” that to is a term of white privilege. A person of color lives in their skin everyday in the REAL world it is not a game to be played. Funny, how a black person is playing the race card when they point out inequities in a system but when race can be used to delineate an entire race of people that is just called life.
A question: If blacks or other ethnic minorities have it so good and are benefiting so tremendously why don’t white men just switch places with them?
The difference between those that share white privilege and those that don’t…
When you (whites) state that you have what you have because you earned it, people accept your explaination and congratulate you.
When you are a person of color, even with a long track record of success you will have to prove not only that you earned it again but you will have to continually show that you deserved it. And, if you perform too well people will become suspect.
And though AA may have nothing to do with any of your successes, people will believe it is the only way that you could possibly have succeeded.
“I slurred something along the lines of ‘I’m not gonna hurt you, buddy’; he laughed and said with remarkable and memorable gentleness, ‘Sir, we just don’t want you to hurt yourself any more.’) I’ve had black and Latino friends whose self-destructive behavior approximated my own — and they report very different stories of often violent (or at the least, rude) treatment at the hands of the police.”
But that’s not privilege or an unfair ADVANTAGE; that’s an unfair DISADVANTAGE facing other people. It’s a crucial distinction. People, in general, shouldn’t be followed around by the store detective when they aren’t committing a crime or acting suspiciously. To say that you are receiving a privilege is to suggest that EVERYBODY should be followed by a store detective, and that you’re receiving special treatment by being left alone.
“On my own merits? Puhleeze! I looked like two-thirds of my hiring committee!”
It seems as though you’re suggesting that, while YOU wouldn’t give the benefit of the doubt to another white person, every OTHER white person WOULD. And you’re not giving yourSELF a whole lot of credit as a job candidate, either.
“And though AA may have nothing to do with any of your successes, people will believe it is the only way that you could possibly have succeeded.”
And this is one of the problems with affirmative action: it condescends towards the people it supposedly is trying to help.