Privilege Is As Privilege Does

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and yo u say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality - Desmond Tutu

I know a lot of (mainly) white people who are increasingly depressed. The world they thought they knew has been turned on its head and the halcyon era of equality they’d proselytised has disappeared in a politically toxic fog of Brexit, Trump and raging populism throughout the Western World. I’d told them that their position was delusional on numerous occasions (I did say this nicely) and that just because the ghettos were being transformed into kale and quinoa salad eating oasis’ where craft beer shops had replaced pubs and taverns, it didn’t mean we would all start singing ‘Kumbaya’ around a camp fire. I could regale you with tale after tale of discussions with well-meaning (mainly) white people whose despondency increased exponentially as I highlighted the inequities that are prevalent in society. And I’d always feel sorry for these decent (mainly) white people because they’d literally implode with shame, disgust and guilt at the sins of their forefathers. But then someone would say something ludicrous like, ‘I don’t see colour’ or ‘political correctness’ and I’d recalibrate.

I’d remember that I was taught never to trust anyone who says they don’t see colour because if that was true then those people saw you as invisible. I’d remember that the majority of middle-class (mainly) white people have no idea of the feelings that occur from being rejected for jobs you were overqualified for, what it feels like to be subjected to brutal, aggressive, suspicious, abusive policing. And I’d remember that ignorance is bliss, especially wilful ignorance. And I’d remember that some people have privilege and that this is often a cause for their obliviousness. This ignorance is at the root of the hopelessness that I highlighted in the first line. It must really easy to hide in white skin, particularly if you’re male. You never incur suspicion and often inspire admiration; plus you are always given the benefit of the doubt. You are the ubiquitous standard by which everything is measured and assessed so whilst you accept this as a standard, the rest of us – blacks, Asians, gays, Latinos, Muslims etc. – know that it’s a wall, a fence, a ceiling to separate us by highlighting our non-whiteness and implied inferiority. As Toni Morrison said, “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”

But the times they are a-changing. Because suddenly white privilege isn’t looking as secure as it used to. Who knew that there were levels of white privilege inaccessible to lots of whites? Apparently, not a lot of white people. However, examples of the casual and arrogant suppositions that the wealthy elite indulge in have caused trustafarians worldwide to choke in to their chai lattes. It seems that being subjected to a daily diet of corrupt practice (which is always presented as an innocent mistake), lies and indifference to the marginalised and destitute has shocked them to their core. Add to that the wilful dismantling of public services and destruction to their pensions and all of a sudden white privilege is as tenuous as a black life mattering.

In the UK we’ve had to endure months of inane Brexit comments implying that ‘the will of the people’ had been served. Politicians with vested interests or xenophobic philosophies wistfully harkening back to the days of empire when Britannia ruled the waves, have been frothing at the mouth in their desire to take back the country from those pesky, shifty foreign types. And yet Teresa May’s government are presiding over the worst public health crisis since the war and an education funding crisis that is causing swathes of schools to decimate their curriculums. Just today Charlotte Hogg has resigned as deputy governor of the Bank of England less than a fortnight into the role after failing to disclose that her brother holds a senior position at Barclays. In the USA…..actually forget it. It’s too much. And it would take too long to recall every instance of Russian cronyism, kleptocratic cabinets appointments, personalised attacks on businesses by the POTUS, policies that destroy the environment and reward the oil and coal industries; just that quick summary has me exhausted and it barely scratches the surface. And don’t forget the misogyny affecting ALL women, the bigotry, the homophobia and the rest.

So what’s my point?

I’m not really sure. I understand that it could be stated that I have a perverse sense of schadenfreude and the angst of the formerly pampered is my reward. But as mildly amusing as the confusion of the hipsters is, I’m not that petty. I suppose my hope is that in recognising the manifest unfairness of the ruling classes, the privileged whites of the world start to use their privilege to address inequity more effectively and that they believe those of us who haven’t had the benefits of white privilege. Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it doesn’t happen to you personally and privilege is the bloviating cousin of narcissism. My hope is that as opposed to teaching people that white privilege is bad, we can actually move towards teaching them what it is.

And I pray that a white person champions this cause. Because when white people are activists on the subject of race they don’t scare people. Well, not the people who matter anyway; other white people. Now that’s white privilege.