Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Wise Words on Privilege (White, Male & Otherwise) from Tim Wise
Yesterday I attended a provocative lecture on white (male) privilege given by Tim Wise at Miss Hall's School in Lenox. Miss Hall's is a pretty elite-looking place, a prep school for girls on a former estate in a ritzy town. I had never been there before, so I was surprised to see how many young women of color filed into the auditorium along with their white peers. Judging from the earnest introduction given by an African American student, begging the audience to keep an open mind and prepare to be enlightened, the anti-racist speaker was invited for good reason.
I was impressed at the way Wise framed the issue of white privilege in terms of structural, institutional benefits that those of privilege are born into but accept as "natural." He also consistently compared white privilege to male, straight privilege, and talked a lot about his wife and two daughters and the world he wants to see for them. It was refreshing to see a white male ally who wasn't afraid to come out and identify himself as such!
Wise used his personal success story as an illustration: he was able to go to college because his mom was able to take out a loan using his grandmother's home as collateral. Had he been born to a black family without the property benefits that whites have accrued after generations of being given advantages, he said, he would never have gotten to college, would never have gotten involved with the anti-racist movement (he cut his teeth on the anti-David Duke campaign in Louisiana in the 1990s) and would not be the successful author speaking to us today.
Wise trotted out some pretty sobering statistics, which most of us have probably heard before, but they still bear listening to again:
During the Q&A period, I asked him his views of the African American reparations movement, and he said he considers himself part of that movement. Instead of spending billions destroying and rebuilding foreign infrastructures like those in Iraq, he suggested, we should have a domestic Marshall Plan, dedicated to pouring much-needed resources into communities of color.
He reminded the audience how the building of the interstate highway system displaced millions of people of color throughout the country, who were never properly compensated for their loss of property--and the interstate system just facilitated white flight from the cities to the suburbs, leaving the property-tax-based urban school systems in the mess we know so well.
Imagine what could be done with our communities of color, and poor communities in general, if instead of building endless prison complexes, we improved the schools, provided decent, cheerful housing, and developed jobs programs to put everyone to work! Of course I know it's complicated, and Tim Wise knows it too. But the money is obviously there, since we're spending it freely in Iraq every hour of every day. So where there's a will there's a way.
I take it as a sign of hope that the administration of an elite school like Miss Hall's cares enough about diversity issues to a) bring all those young women of color into the school; and b) try to address the issue of privilege head-on, by requiring the girls and the entire faculty to leave class and attend a morning lecture on the topic.
Talk is cheap, but it's a start. It's the lack of dialogue on issues like this that truly sound the deathknell for positive change.
I was impressed at the way Wise framed the issue of white privilege in terms of structural, institutional benefits that those of privilege are born into but accept as "natural." He also consistently compared white privilege to male, straight privilege, and talked a lot about his wife and two daughters and the world he wants to see for them. It was refreshing to see a white male ally who wasn't afraid to come out and identify himself as such!
Wise used his personal success story as an illustration: he was able to go to college because his mom was able to take out a loan using his grandmother's home as collateral. Had he been born to a black family without the property benefits that whites have accrued after generations of being given advantages, he said, he would never have gotten to college, would never have gotten involved with the anti-racist movement (he cut his teeth on the anti-David Duke campaign in Louisiana in the 1990s) and would not be the successful author speaking to us today.
Wise trotted out some pretty sobering statistics, which most of us have probably heard before, but they still bear listening to again:
- in 1976, the wealthiest 1% of Americans owned 22% of the financial wealth of the country
- in 2006, this had doubled: the wealthiest 1% of Americans now own 46% of the financial wealth of the U.S.
- In 1865, African Americans owned one-half of 1% of the wealth of the country.
- In 2006, they own 1% of the wealth of the country.
During the Q&A period, I asked him his views of the African American reparations movement, and he said he considers himself part of that movement. Instead of spending billions destroying and rebuilding foreign infrastructures like those in Iraq, he suggested, we should have a domestic Marshall Plan, dedicated to pouring much-needed resources into communities of color.
He reminded the audience how the building of the interstate highway system displaced millions of people of color throughout the country, who were never properly compensated for their loss of property--and the interstate system just facilitated white flight from the cities to the suburbs, leaving the property-tax-based urban school systems in the mess we know so well.
Imagine what could be done with our communities of color, and poor communities in general, if instead of building endless prison complexes, we improved the schools, provided decent, cheerful housing, and developed jobs programs to put everyone to work! Of course I know it's complicated, and Tim Wise knows it too. But the money is obviously there, since we're spending it freely in Iraq every hour of every day. So where there's a will there's a way.
I take it as a sign of hope that the administration of an elite school like Miss Hall's cares enough about diversity issues to a) bring all those young women of color into the school; and b) try to address the issue of privilege head-on, by requiring the girls and the entire faculty to leave class and attend a morning lecture on the topic.
Talk is cheap, but it's a start. It's the lack of dialogue on issues like this that truly sound the deathknell for positive change.
