Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 13

 

Confronting White Privilege

As we enter into Lent, we continue to journey with Jesus in our Spiritual Exercises and grapple with topics around racial justice and antiracism. Building on our recognition of how racism is cultural, structural, and historical, today we examine the idea that some of us are privileged just because we are White. As this can be difficult to grapple with, today is an invitation to wade into any feelings of discomfort that might emerge, regardless whether one identifies as White or as a person of color. As you enter into this reading, ask for the grace to be open to the diversity of feelings and experiences that emerge or resurface. 

For those of us who identify as a member of a dominant group, be it, for example, as a White person, a man, a heterosexual, an American citizen or Christian living in the USA, it is often difficult to acknowledge and recognize the ways we might experience some degree of privilege. Privilege is understood to mean certain advantages granted to a person just by virtue of being a member in that group. Privilege (or lack thereof) shapes how we come to understand ourselves, how others understand us, and how we interact with others. Privilege manifests in the following examples: 

• As a man, I do not think about safety from sexual assault when I am walking home at night or finding my car in an empty parking garage.
   
• As a Christian, I do not wonder if I will be thought to be a “terrorist” due to my religion.
   
• As a heterosexual person, if I use the neutral word “spouse,” people will not assume I am in a same-sex marriage. 

Said another way, to be privileged is to expect that things I experience will be considered normal. Harkening back to an earlier newsletter, they are culturally deemed to be good and taken-for-granted. This expectation is often unconscious and unrealized, which makes the realization of privilege feel uncomfortable. Because our country values an individualistic ethic of hard work, and we see all of our accomplishments as personally earned, it becomes difficult to think that some elements of my life are granted to me by that identity group. 

Turning to race, we consider the simple example of adhesive bandages. Some bandages are labeled “nude” in color, suggesting they match the skin color and thus will blend so much so that the bandage will appear to be nude skin. What color is assumed to be “nude”? What colors are by default, then, not considered to be “nude”?

Talk of bandages may feel trivial and harmless. Racial privilege stretches deeper than consumer products, though. To experience racial privilege is to see the victors in history books to be White. White privilege happens when members who look Middle Eastern, though technically White in past U.S. Census data, are disproportionately stopped by airport security for “random” testing. Racial privilege is walking into a Catholic Church and seeing God depicted to be depicted as “my race.” The converse is also true. Subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) socialized into those who are not White is that God “does not look like me.” Those who experience White privilege see their experience as presented to be standardized, while those who are of color see their experience as marginalized. These can add up over time, producing a feeling of inherent inferiority in those outside the benefit of privilege. 

However we identify racially, we can be tempted to paralysis. For help in understanding this, we might turn to the example of Jesus in yesterday’s Gospel. Each Lent, we begin by remembering that Jesus, fully human, faced temptations in the desert. Mark’s account does not include what those temptations were. While we know Jesus did not succumb to temptation, it must have been hard. We can bring those places where we are tempted to paralysis to him, and ask Jesus to lead us through moments of fear, for like him, there is power in facing the desert openly and honestly. 

Resource: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

READ Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” a famous essay to continue reflecting on the unconscious ways white people benefit from privilege. 

Post-Reflection Questions:

How did I feel reading about privilege? If I was White, did I notice any examples that particularly resonated with my own experience, in the text or the resource from Peggy McIntosh? As a person of color, how do I feel when I see White people experience privilege over me? 

How do I experience privilege in ways besides race? Regardless of whether I experience privilege or not, how do I claim my agency to advocate for those who do not experience privilege? 

Where does privilege show up in my workplace? My social life? 

Consider bringing our feelings about privilege to Jesus. What does he say? What does he reveal about our feelings? Do they point to any temptations that paralyze me?