Race & Power

Monica Walker, Chief Diversity Officer for Guilford County Schools, brought back precious memories as she discussed race and power in a recent presentation. I was quickly taken aback to a time when racism was at its peak.

I read White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack for the first time several years ago. I will never forget how enlightened I felt after reading McIntosh’s article, more specifically the following passage:

"I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets, which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks."

I remember thinking to myself, what will other white folks think about Peggy McIntosh since she told their secret, which was meant to remain oblivious. I have often wondered what her peers, both white and black, have said to her directly or indirectly as a result of this article.
As a young child I realized that I did not have unearned assets such as, special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks like my white counterparts. My parents and grandparents taught me to work hard in life for what I wanted and I naively thought everyone else did as well, regardless of race. Then I started hearing comments from other black relatives and friends stating “you have to work twice as hard as white folks to get ahead in life…”

Since reading this article I have had several conversations with white friends and acquaintances to seek their perspectives. They agreed that white privilege exist and had benefited them over their lives. They also agreed that there was nothing that they did to earn white privilege. Older whites, who lived at a nursing home where I worked, informed me that their parents instilled in them white privilege. The older whites were told that they were better than the rest of society, namely blacks. Ironically, during this same time I asked the same group of older whites if they thought a black man would be president of the United States some day. I was told by a male resident that “if a colored man ever gets elected president he’ll be assassinated before he’ll ever step foot in the White House…” The other older whites did not contest his point of view; therefore I assumed that they were also in agreement with him. Given the current presidential race I would love to engage further with the same gentlemen who told me the results of a black president. I wonder what he would think about a woman president. Unfortunately, he has passed since our last conversation. Sadly, many blacks and whites from older generations will have to die before “black America” and “white America” merges to what Senator Barack Obama calls “The United States of America.”