I Know I'm Privileged, How About You?

As demonstrations against police brutality and racist policies continue across the country in response to the deaths of George Floyd and other unarmed African Americans, discussions of the mainstream response to these protests have largely focused on white allyship and privilege. Consumers of various racial backgrounds, demanding swift, clear stances from large and predominantly white corporations, have received statements ranging from Ben and Jerry’s scathing indictment of a legal system built on white supremacy to the tone-deaf accounts of others in the public eye who profess racial blindness. Turning to antiracist authors for answers, shoppers have also bought out supplies of books with titles such as Me and White Supremacy, How to Be an Antiracist, White Fragility, The Color of Law, and So You Want to Talk About Race. Now more than ever, Americans are urgently and publicly grappling with the construct of race and the benefits or barriers inherent in one’s racial identity.

 While uncomfortable, talks of privilege—whether centered on race, language, sexuality, socioeconomic status, or the intersections of these and other markers of identity—must endure beyond protests and into our boardrooms, schools, and homeowners’ association meetings if we want to dismantle systemic racism and other obstacles to equal opportunity in our country. We must unpack the history behind the hashtags and hold each other accountable to the ways we reinforce privilege in order to make tangible, lasting changes to our legal system, our schools, and our workplaces. We can start with the following:

 Acknowledge that privilege exists. The idea of privilege goes against the lore of the American Dream, the notion that we all can achieve success with hard work regardless of our background or income. Yet for some of us, particularly white Americans who reaped the generational and financial benefits of the slave trade, redlining, and whites-only universities, economic stability proves much more achievable. When we ignore privilege and admonish people who don’t look like us to “stop complaining” and “work harder,” we erase the struggles of their ancestors and reduce their histories to excuses, then fail to develop programs and strategies to improve access to the resources necessary to level the playing field. Let’s face the truth: opportunity inherent in the American Dream has never been evenly distributed.

 Accept our differences without dismissing each other’s experiences. “I don’t see color” may sound like a comforting assurance to people reckoning with the damage of racial discrimination, but it actually insults the very people it’s meant to support. The refusal to see color inherently signifies the refusal to see the very real racial biases impacting people of color, including disproportionate access to business loans, affordable housing, quality education and healthcare, and other means of stability and improvement. It also invites people of privilege to avoid considering how their experiences have been shaped by race, thus nullifying the racism people of color have always had to combat in order to survive. Instead of promoting color blindness or even full understanding of the injustices of black life, people with white privilege would do better by recognizing racial differences and calling out instances of racism.

 Realize that silence on the issues equals tolerance of the problem. “Neutrality,” according to author and activist Elie Wiesel, “helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Silence, though it seems safe and keeps us from having to defend ourselves or from alienating others, only strengthens the position of those wielding injustice. We expect an outcry from the people negatively impacted by our social structures; when people of privilege stay silent, they indicate their willingness to uphold the status quo. When discussing systemic racism and discrimination, we cannot attach conditions or exceptions—we’re either for or against what’s happening, regardless of the consequences of our position.

Here at the Eastledge Group, we understand that the national conversations on topics such as privilege, white supremacy, protests, and systemic injustice are uncomfortable and likely to bring about diverse and conflicting opinions. We realize that some people may feel singled out or even made to feel responsible for the prevalence of racial inequality in our country. Nevertheless, we feel these conversations are timely and necessary starting points to help us all confront the realities of racial inequities and identify the methods by which we create systems in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We welcome your responses and ideas as we do our part to bring about the change, we all need.