What is white privilege? | Guest Opinion

It’s time to explain “white privilege” from a local perspective. We’ve heard it mentioned as part of the Black Lives Matter protests. But what does white privilege look like in the Tri-Cities? After all, most white folk in the Tri-Cities don’t purposefully discriminate against people of color. For those of us just trying to pursue the American Dream, “privilege” is a difficult concept to apply to ourselves. But keep this in mind: If you’re learning about racism and not experiencing it, you’re privileged.

Let’s start with something simple. On June 4, 2020, the front page of the Herald featured one of my son’s childhood friends and three other young white men. They were carrying assault-style weapons in front of PetSmart in Kennewick. They called themselves “Defend the Tri,” a volunteer militia formed to protect local businesses from damage or looting if Black Lives Matters demonstrations got out of hand. These men appear to be virtuous, concerned, and using their 2nd amendment rights.

That’s white privilege. Would young black men have that privilege? If a group of four young black men armed with assault weapons and dressed in camouflage were photographed patrolling our shopping mall, it would raise a different response from the white community. Even if the black men were licensed to carry weapons of this caliber, it is more likely that the general public would identify them as a terrorist group, not an example of concerned citizens acting to protect public safety. Would they be labeled Black Panthers, Antifa, hooligans, or gang members?

White privilege allows us to ascribe negative values to people of black or brown skin that we do not ascribe to white skin.

The white men in “Defend the Tri” are privileged to be judged differently from black men because of the color of their skin. They may be considered young, naive, maybe a little extreme, but not a threat, certainly not threatening a race war.

It’s also white privilege that allows white people to be more concerned about protecting property than protecting the lives of people of color. White privilege allows white people to defend property against looting and violence without remembering that our forebears modeled looting and violence as it stole property from Native Americans to establish our stake in this country. Then our ancestors stole people and declared them property. In the era of slavery, the monetary value of human “property” accounted for more wealth than all the combined industry of this country.

It’s white privilege to say that’s all in the past, that it no longer matters that white folk claimed human beings as their property and claimed indigenous people’s land as their real estate. The children of those human beings and indigenous people do not have the privilege of forgetting. They live with daily reminders that the past is still creating the world they live in.

I read of a peaceful protest in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when a white man confronted a crowd of black men who were holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign. “It should say, “All lives Matter!” he asserted. The Rev. Joseph Parks responded to the man, saying, “All of my bones matter. But if my wrist is broken, the only bone that matters at that moment is the one that’s broken.” White privilege allows white people to forget there are parts of our nation’s body that are in pain.

Why does white privilege matter? Because privilege breeds contempt. All white people consciously or unconsciously benefit from a system that oppresses people of color. Our indoctrination to privilege begins so young and is so ingrained in our culture that we may not even be aware of the biases we hold. This does not mean that as a white person, we don’t struggle with the realities of life. It simply means that our skin color is not one of the things making it harder. And this breeds contempt.

White privilege matters because it gets in the way of our survival as humans. Our best hopes of survival as a nation of transplants depends on working toward common goals and lifting one another higher.

Finally, white privilege matters because it’s embarrassing to hear white people complain that they are victims.

But perhaps we are victims — victims of our own privilege, because privilege gets in the way of our human dignity. There’s little self-respect in privilege. Privileged egos are fragile. Privileged egos get hurt feelings and are easily frightened. Maybe we need big guns to hide our fear. But if we don’t come to terms with our privilege, we have no one to blame but ourselves if the fragile white system is threatened by protests.

This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 12:07 PM with the headline "What is white privilege? | Guest Opinion."