For many of us white people, highly charged terms such as “white supremacy,” “white privilege,” and “institutionalized racism” can feel uncomfortable, a bit extreme or totally non-applicable for ourselves and our own life experiences. It is natural that certain associations to these terms have been ingrained in us by all we have learned and picked up in the world. It is understandable that for many of us, those associations can lead to the conclusion that the ideas of white supremacy, white privilege and institutionalized racism simply do not apply to ourselves and in our own lives. To help shine a light on how these terms, how these ideas and how this reality does in fact apply to ourselves and in our own lives, the following are some examples of how I have benefited from white supremacy, white privilege and institutionalized racism:
Juvenile Justice Involvement
At 15 years old, I stole a car from a residential treatment facility and found myself charged with grand theft auto. I would up in a juvenile justice system that was clearly designed to capture black and brown young people. When I stood in front of the white judge, I was seen less as a “bad” kid and more as a “troubled” kid. In turn, I was funneled back into the behavioral health system where I belonged while many of my peers were sentenced to punitive boot camps. The statistics on juvenile justice don’t lie. As a white young person, I always stood a far greater chance of escaping that system than my black and brown peers. And furthermore, the difference between escaping the juvenile justice system and remaining caught up in it is a huge predictor of what adult criminal justice involvement will look like.
Graduating from High School
I was given a second chance to graduate high school. I was seen as redeemable. If there are two words that for me epitomize my experiences of white privilege, it would be “second chances.” I was given many second chances in life, including the opportunity to come back to high school and obtain a diploma that has made all the difference as an adult in the world. Even if it is not conscious, which I believe it most often is not, there is a greater inkling to see a troubled young white person as redeemable and good while a troubled young person of color is to be feared and seen as bad. I am absolutely confident that the instrumental willingness of the public high school institution to bend for me would not have been the same if I was a young person of color.
Job Opportunities
While I am currently obtaining my Master’s degree at an Ivy League institution that just so happens to ooze white privilege, I spent many years in my chosen field’s workforce without having even an Associate’s degree. I held many positions that initially required a college degree on the job description but I would find those requirements bent for me because of a belief in my skills and potential as well as the connections and relationships I had formed. I am absolutely confident that the professional opportunities I have been given in my life without having a college degree would have by far been less available had I been a person of color without a degree. Again, I do not believe this was so much of a conscious decision making process on the part of those who gave me opportunities or bent the rules as it was an indicator of what white privilege, white supremacy and institutionalized racism looks like in our daily lives, an indicator of how it touches all of us.
Speaking Up at Work
I have experienced many occasions in which a person of color would say something to a white leader in the workplace and go unheard, yet if I said the same exact thing, albeit in slightly different language, I would be heard. I have watched this happen in meetings where the person who originally expressed the thought was sitting close by me. I have seen the look on their face when they have experienced what must be a painful thing to have happen, to be slapped in the face with my voice being heard while theirs was dismissed. Again, even if it was not conscious, my whiteness was the catalyst for my being heard while those individuals were not. I spoke in the “right” language. The language of white people/white culture being the “right” language in the workplace is a great example of white privilege, white supremacy and institutionalized racism.
The above are just some examples of how I have benefited from my whiteness and are shared to serve as just some examples of what white privilege, white supremacy and institutionalized racism looks like in the world. While it is understandable that those terms can make us uncomfortable, it is important that we understand what those terms really mean and represent. At the end of the day, we as white people continue to benefit from them, and if there is to be any solution to be found in dismantling oppression and racism in this country, we must first look in the mirror and see how it shows up as benefits for ourselves. We then must speak out about it, and ultimately, we must become truly willing to let go of the advantages those benefits have afforded us.