Privilegaholics Anonymous [aka Where have all the White Men gone?]

“Hi there. My name is Brett Fish Anderson and I benefit from White Privilege.”

“Hi Brett!”

i mean that’s how i thought it would go, when i wandered into the room, very much late to the party.

Only thing is, the room seems surprisingly empty.

“As a black person I am really shocked that there are white ppl who think like this.” [Brian Maila]

“Like Brian, I also didn’t realise that there were white people who actually realised that “white privilege” is real. Thank you so much for this.” [Khaniyisa]

And those were not the only comments as a response to me, a white male, writing some thoughts on White Privilege, suggesting that it is a thing and that we have to own it and then work together to counteract it or hope for complete transformation over time.

I am also not the only one noticing this. Sarah Bessey, an amazing bloggerist from Canada, held back from writing her piece, while the Ferguson incident [the shooting and killing of a young black man repeatedly by a white police officer] was happening [she is Canadian] to give the Americans a chance to process and write their own story. But eventually, as the majority of the white bloggers seemed to be silent on it, she had to speak up over here.

But these past four days in Ferguson have broken through my usual resolve: this is absolutely a justice issue. I have waited patiently for more white Christian bloggers to speak up, particularly the Americans, trying to give them precedent to respond, but I have been disheartened by minimal response there. I want to come alongside the African American voices already writing and advocating, even in this small way.

i spent a LOT of time reading a LOT of posts in relation to Ferguson and White Privilege and Race over this last week and link after link was either African American people [both men and women] and then white women writing on the topic. I must have read well over 20 posts [in fact, i must have linked to close to 20 posts over here and here which means there were probably more] and i can’t remember any of them being written by white males [there might possibly have been one or two, but no white male faces stand out].

That doesn’t feel great and i am hoping that it is simply because i have not stumbled upon them. Although comments like Brian and Khanyisa’s make me feel like that might not be the case.

One of the women whose blog posts i read actually told me later she was scared when she saw my picture next to my Twitterer comment  [she had to close the comment sections on both her blog pieces as they got out of hand] because obviously this white guy will react in the same way every other white guy she has encountered will react [especially this one with dreads, right] and then just so surprised when i affirmed her post. I am hoping Danielle will guest post for me in a few weeks time.

So basically this post is a cry out to all my white blogger friends, especially the men. WHERE ARE YOU? Are you staying silent on such an important topic of conversation? Are you prepared to put your hand up and acknowledge White Privilege and then write a piece to get people thinking and talking?

It feels like this happened a little more naturally in Americaland as it was fueled by an incident [or lets be honest here, just one more incident in a long line] and so maybe that is what it will take in South Africa to get us all to the table [i hope not].

If you read this piece, then please issue a challenge to your white friends who blog [and even those who don’t – i can make space on my blog for more voices] and your white pastor friends and others in leadership or who have influence. Share this on their walls. Tweet this with their names in it. Let’s see some more white voices, and white male voices, speaking up about White Privilege.

If you have read any white male voices speaking out on this topic then please add the links in the comments section – it would be great to be able to give a page of links that are not just African American and female voices [which have been so powerful and gracious and insightful and kind]

My name is Brett Fish Anderson and i benefit from White Privilege. And i am wondering if there is anyone else out there? 

Found one! [Thankx John Scheepers] – Stephen Murray wrote this inspirational piece.

White Privilege in all shapes and forms

So i have spent the last two days in particular reading a WHOLE LOT OF POSTS on aspects of White Privilege and Race and in particular posts related to the Ferguson incidents in Americaland.

This has been the most research i have done into any topic for a long time and i am not sure ‘enjoyed’ is the right word but ‘appreciated’ definitely. In fact, it has NOT been easy reading but so so necessary and i just wish all my white friends in particular would make the time to take some of these in.

A lot of the research was because i have been wanting to write a piece on White Privilege for a while now, which i finally got around to over here. People are reading it and more importantly SHARING it around and i am hoping that more people will ENGAGE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION and help make this into a conversation.

As i started reading some really amazing posts i realised i needed to share some of them and so i stuck a whole lot of them over here. It is incredible how some of the posts can have such a different angle or perspective and yet be so valuable. From using analogies like riding a bicycle on streets designed for cars, to writing from the perspective of being a parent of either white children or black children, to many more i was being challenged and encouraged and shaken in so many different ways.

And as i sat down to work through a few more today i realised [after adding a post to yesterday’s list] that there were just too many good conversations to lump them all into one email as they are going to no doubt get lost. But THESE ARE SUCH IMPORTANT THINGS and so, if even just for one day, please put down your five minute attention span tendencies and really spend some time digging into these things. IF YOU ARE  A WHITE PERSON, these are things you need to know. You might not feel like they are necessary or important or even relevant, and if that is the case then you more than others really need to GYHOOYA [Get Your Head Out Of Your… Yes!] and start paying attention. This is for you and it is about you. You need to listen up. MY friends of colour – these posts are not news for you, but i can also use your help in writing some others to share these things from your perspective [brettfish@hotmail.com]

So here are a few more that i REALLY feel are worth reading, and while the events may be specifically focuses on Americaland because of the whole Ferguson incident, they are very much relevant to conversations that need to be taking place right here in South Africa.

Austin Channing Brown wrote what was probably the hardest piece i have read because of how much truth it contains and how sad and ashamed that makes me of white people and the church in so many ways, in this piece titled ‘Black Bodies White Souls’

Sarah Bessey who is a Canadian write whose work i generally really admire, held her breath and her voice and waited and watched and then eventually couldn’t any more and wrote this piece titled, ‘In which I have a few things to tell you about #Ferguson’, which was one of the pieces i read which affected me the most emotionally. And is much needed.

This piece by Rev. Erica Liu which is part of a preach on Romans 16 took the whole conversation from a completely different angle and related it to the ‘Road to Emmaus’ conversation of an unrecognised Jesus talking to two followers and turns the whole thing on its head. ‘What Romans 16 has to do with Ferguson, MO – Listening to the Voices of the Stranger’ is a brilliant offering in that it goes beyond the incident at hand and invites us to be aware of who we invite to sit and speak at our tables.

And lastly, this powerful and informative piece, ‘Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person’ by Gina Crosley-Corcoran, helps dig a little deeper in terms of challenging the myth that this is simply an economic issue.

You would do well to read and pay attention to any one of those.

You would do even better to really put some time aside and work your way through all of them, share them with your friends and start some conversations on your thoughts and what kind of action they might lead you to do.

So much great writing by so many incredible people on a topic that is hard and should be affecting so many more of us than it has.

It will be so great when ‘Race’ as a topic can be removed from the Taboo Topics section on my blog, but it has become painfully obvious that it deserves to rest there for the moment.

[For my post asking the question, ‘Where are the other White men speaking about this?, click here]

[For other questions, issues and aspects of race-related things on this blog, click here]

White Privilege: Other helpful posts to help you get it

While writing a piece on White Privilege for my blog, i  have been doing a lot of reading up on articles and posts relating to the whole Ferguson situation that has been playing out in Americaland and there have been a number of really helpful ones written and here are some of those:

I loved this piece which begins with an innocent ‘interaction’ in a coffee shop that opens up to the much more hectic conversation about Ferguson and the challenge for us to stop hiding:

http://culturemulching.com/2014/08/24/how-do-we-dance-after-ferguson-for-the-privileged-vacationer 

An excellent piece from a comparative perspective of ‘If this was a white kid it would not have played out this way’ which is White Privilege to the extreme:

http://blog.mattstauffer.org/182/first-they-came-for-the-black-people-and-i-did-not-speak-out

This is a very different perspective, shared by a mother of a six year old, Keesha Beckford, with some practical ideas on what we can do to make a difference:

http://www.bonbonbreak.com/dear-white-moms

This is the piece by Elizabeth Broadbent which i already referenced [under her alias of Manic Pixie Dream Mama] from the perspective of a white mother able to spot the difference:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-broadbent/a-mothers-white-privilege_b_5698263.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black+Voices

A helpful piece using the analogy of bicycle riding in a world designed for cars, helps to bring the point across:

http://alittlemoresauce.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/what-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege

This is a visiual of the difference in reporting language for white and black crimes that is heartbreakingly indicative of the fact of White Privilege:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/media-black-victims_n_5673291.html

Had to add this one which looks at 28 common racist attitudes and behaviours and while i don’t agree completely with all of them, i do see a lot of sad truth in most of them:

https://www.stcloudstate.edu/affirmativeaction/resources/insights/pdf/28ToolsChange.pdf

And i would love to hear from you – when it comes to ‘White Privilege’ and Race Conversations, what are the articles and blog posts that have influenced you or caused you to pay extra attention of late?

Finally, a reminder from pastor Martin Niemöller which was written about the Holocaust and a reminder why it is SO IMPORTANT for white people to be having these conversations and getting personally involved in action:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

[There were just too many good ones so click here for four of the best posts i read on Race/White Privilege]

 [For my original post on White Privilege, click here]

i’m not sure you’re against that thing you think you’re against: white privilege

A lot of people, yes white ones [like me], switch off when we hear the term ‘white privilege’ [please don’t!]

Some people, yes white ones, get angry when we hear the term ‘white privilege’ [please don’t!]

But i sometimes wonder if it is because of a misunderstanding of what people who talk about ‘white privilege’ mean when they do so.

So please take a deep breath and try and approach this piece with fresh eyes [forget what you think white privilege is and see if what i am suggesting it might be is something worth engaging with] knowing that this will at the very most scrape the top of what is a deep and wide barrel. Because i am a white male and live in South Africa i believe it is essential for me to try and understand something of this description of ‘white privilege’ that follows.

So let’s look at a couple of official definitions:

White privilege (or white skin privilege) is the set of societal privileges that white people benefit from beyond those commonly experienced by people of color in the same social, political, or economic spaces (nation, community, workplace, income, etc.). [Wikipedia]

White privilege has been defined as unearned advantages of being White in a racially stratified society, and has been characterized as an expression of institutional power that is largely unacknowledged by most White individuals [Neville, Worthington, & Spanierman, 2001]

I feel like the term and the idea of ‘White Privilege’ is one that is too complex to explain simply, but at the same time, that it is really helpful that we try to come to at least some understanding…

I feel like this cartoon does a good job of depicting the problem. People who benefit from ‘White Privilege’tend to have an easier path through life or some area or aspect of life, whereas those who are not white have the odds stacked against them to varying degrees and extents. When you are a circle and have made it easily through a hole that is circular, you tend to expect things to be as easy for everyone else, not necessarily noticing or realising what the same task might mean to someone of a different shape.

i asked some people for their definitions or understandings of ‘White Privilege’ and this is what they said:

Andrew Enslin: I see white privilege as the belief that 20 years of a 60/40 relationship makes up for over 40 years of apartheid.

Alexa Russell Matthews: White Priv Def: The things in life that I only know I have once i realise that my friends of different colours don’t assume that they have, or have a reaction to which my peers and I don’t always understand…

Susannah Prinz: this probably won’t work in the context where you are now and it’s not the exact question you are asking, but since you were just in this fair city i’ll share anyway: one easy example that sums up my white privilege? even though i am in the ethnic minority on the street/neighborhood where i live (being white), i can fairly assume that if i ever break minor traffic, etc laws, i will not get a second glance from a police officer…much less be pulled over, harassed, ticketed or worse. why do i think that? not from my car- which is old. not from my flawless driving- because i drive way too east oakland around here. simply because i am a white woman. (and in addition, i have absolutely *no* fear that i would be pulled over or stopped by a law officer without legitimate reason.) i could list a lot more reasons, but that’s one that instantly comes to mind.

Lara Harler Lahr: System if advantage based on race

Gayle Evers: White privilege is like being right-handed. You live in a world subtly and not-so-subtly geared to accommodate your needs, while completely ignoring the existence of others.

If you have a bit of time to dig a little deeper into this, then i would encourage you to read these three articles that came out of Stanford which look at the same concept from very different sides that i shared a little about in my post titled, ‘I will not apologise for my white privilege’ a while ago.

For those who have less time, this cartoon will give some idea of one clear way in which ‘White Privilege’ manifests in the world today.

I saw a similiar idea demonstrated on a picture that read, ‘If we discover that the Boston Bomber is white, no-one is going to go around saying, ‘All whites are terrorists.’ White Privilege.

Or perhaps this one shows it even more blatantly:

This picture stunningly crafted by @JennLi123

The language we [and the media] use to describe events can demonstrate the effects of ‘White Privilege’ on a nation. The guy with ‘White Privilege’ is described as ‘misunderstood’ despite the horrific things he did, whereas the black guy is described as a criminal despite the horrific things that were done to him. If you change the pictures across and attribute the opposite thing to each person, then just imagine what description will be used to describe what went down.

White Privilege. Knowing you will be treated better, viewed better, granted less or no suspicion, given the benefit of the doubt…

It is so important for us white people to realise that as the big fish in this picture, we are more likely to view the world as a just place, because we don’t experience the same things that those without the privilege do. We might also be guilty of minimalising the genuine concerns/grievances of those without the privilege we have, by comparing things which are not equal to begin with, like in this picture:

The point of ‘White Privilege’ is that you started with a loaded deck. The playing fields between myself as a white person and the majority of black people did not start level.

By being born into the family i was, i gained privilege.

By living in the area i live, i gained privilege.

By going to the school i was able to go to, i gained privilege.

And so on…

Admitting to White Privilege is not saying that i was personally responsible for apartheid and need to feel bad about that for the rest of my life. It is acknowledging that because i was born at the time i was born, when apartheid was still rampant in South Africa, that i had an easier passage through life in many respects [at least in terms of opportunities and treatment].

This blog post by Manic Pixie Dream Mama, written in the aftermath of the Ferguson chaos that resulted after a young black man [Mike Brown, see above] was shot, is worth taking a read of as i think she explains it really well:

To admit white privilege is to admit a stake, however small, in ongoing injustice. It’s to see a world different than your previous perception. Acknowledging that your own group enjoys social and economic benefits of systemic racism is frightening and uncomfortable. It leads to hard questions of conscience may of us aren’t prepared to face. There is substantial anger: at oneself, at the systems of oppression, and mostly at the bearer of bad news, a convenient target of displacement. But think on this.

She goes on to list a number of things her young white sons will get to do or be when they grow up [with links to actual stories of where black youth were involved and it went the other way] and some of those include the following [As a helpful exercise, why don’t you read this list out loud to yourself, saying the phrase ‘White Privilege’ after each one]:

Clerks do not follow my sons around the store, presuming they might steal something.

Their normal kid stuff – tantrums, running, shouting – these are chalked up to being children, not to being non-white.

People do not assume that, with three children, I am scheming to cheat the welfare system.

When I wrap them on my back, no one thinks I’m going native, or that I must be from somewhere else.

When my sons are teenagers, I will not worry about them leaving the house. I will worry – that they’ll crash the car, or impregnate  a girl, or engage in the same stupidness endemic to teenagers everywhere.

They will walk together, all three, through our suburban neighborhood. People will think, Look at those kids out for a walk. They will not think, Look at those punks casing the joint.

People will assume they are intelligent. No one will say they are “well-spoken” when they break out SAT words. Women will not cross the street when they see them. Nor will they clutch their purses tighter.

My boys can grow their hair long, and no one will assume it’s a political statement.

No one will stop and frisk my boys because they look suspicious.

She ends her post with three lines that  flip this whole thing on its head. And while this is a story specific to Americaland, there is enough of an overlap for us to learn its lessons here as well:

For a mother, white privilege means your heart doesn’t hit your throat when your kids walk out the door. It means you don’t worry that the cops will shoot your sons.

It carries another burden instead. White privilege means that if you don’t school your sons about it, if you don’t insist on its reality and call out oppression, your sons may become something terrifying.

Your sons may become the shooters.

i’m not sure i’ve done a great job in unpacking what ‘White Privilege’ is, but hopefully  this will give some of us some more stuff to think about. i am hoping that one or two other friends of mine will write their own piece so that we can engage and learn together.

If hearing the phrase ‘White Privilege’ makes you angry or frustrated and you want to respond by blocking your ears or running away or starting an argument, take a moment and ask yourself why that is. Is it because the conversations on ‘White Privilege’ should really not be happening? Or is it possibly because of the realisation that if this stuff is true, then there is still a lot more work to be done. Don’t be like the toilet door people.

[To hear from someone outside South Africa’s perspective on White Privilege, click here]

[here are some other excellent posts i have been reading on this topic]