John Ellis

Leveling the racial playing field

By: John Ellis

Posted: 2/25/08

As Black History Month comes to a close, the issue of race seems to be getting less attention.

Some people may not care or may just pretend race is of little consequence in American society. I feel a strange sense of obligation to spill my white perspective on the issue.

I have always seen myself as a person of indifference when it comes to matters of race. If someone is black, who cares? If someone is white, what does it matter? Any variation therein, what's the big deal? We are all people, right?

Well, to not care about race, I'm realizing, is the same as ignoring the many struggles and hardships that people of color have gone through and are continuing to go through today.

It's not only important to care about race but to understand your place in terms of society's organization of race as well.

You see, I learned about racism by seeing how others have been discriminated against and how that kind of intolerance is wrong. I never considered who I was, as a white person, in the workings of our society.

I was born with an entitlement that gives me an unfair benefit in the world - my skin color.

I recently found a 20-year-old article titled, "White Privilege," by Peggy McIntosh, which opened my eyes to this fact.

Because of who I am, a whitey, there are a number of things that I take for granted and, without conscious effort, use to my advantage.

Though this list could go on and on, here are a few of the things I am talking about.

I know I can turn on the television or read a publication and see people who look like me conveying information that applies to me. It's an unspoken comfort. While the media are becoming more and more diverse, whites are still represented in a disproportionate majority compared to the rest of the country.

I can find housing with ease, and I can be sure that when I move in, my new neighbors will greet me without prejudgment.

I can use foul language or shop at Goodwill without people attributing those things to the bad morals or the poverty that is somehow associated with race.

I can excel at anything and reach the height of my future career without that being called a credit to my race or people thinking I only got there because of affirmative action.

If the police or a security guard or a store clerk stops me, I can be positive I'm not being singled out for my race.

And lastly, I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

These are facts of our society and ignoring them can be very destructive to the effort toward equality. And if equality is the ultimate goal, recognizing these unearned advantages is the first step to leveling the playing field, though I don't claim to know what the next step should be.

Regardless, I know my skin color shouldn't be an asset to me, and people of color shouldn't have any drawbacks because of who they are.

Simply put, because of the actions of my ancestors, and their ancestors before them, I am obligated to try and reverse any ideas that reinforce these misguided and downright stupid assertions.

Because if I don't at least try, than I'm profiting off of the ignorance that has marginalized, alienated and condemned people for centuries. And I can never be OK with that.

From now on, I will always question whether my whiteness plays a role in what I get in life, and, if I can, I will counteract those notions verbally and with passion. It's the least I can do. Peggy, a white woman, showed me that, and I'll take her cue.

"If these things are true, this is not such a free country, one's life is not what one makes it; many doors are open for certain people, though not through virtues of their own. Whiteness has protected me from many kinds of hostilities, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit on people of color …"

-Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.