The 'Quiet Costs' of White Supremacy

Privilege is when you think that
something's not a problem
because it's not a problem
for you personally.

- David Gaider

I am an Affirmative Action baby, and a proud and unapologetic one at that. The college cheating scandal that came to light this week illustrates why: funny how we didn't hear but one of the traditional twin narratives that typically accompany - and purport to summarize the criticism of - Affirmative Action, that it displaces more qualified people and that it creates a sense of inferiority in its recipients. I'll let you guess which one of these has been left out of the ensuing, (supposedly) mortified (and, in reality, mortifying) conversation.…

No, Lori Laughlin's daughters aren't the least bit perturbed by how they were admitted to a college for which they did not otherwise qualify. Given that one of them was a budding YouTube sensation, I think it's fair to conclude that she doesn't feel stigmatized by her unearned good fortune. And now that the scandal has broken, we haven't heard a peep about her feeling apologetic, have we? Don't get me wrong, I realize that it's hard to be as connected from a billionaire's yacht, but still.…

Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't the least bit shocked by this week's revelations. They were simply the latest confirmation for me of an ugly reality about our beloved country that we refuse to acknowledge: America has always treated the rich and powerful - who, it must be noted, are disproportionately white - far better and, in fact, provided them with a different set of rules by which they could live and prosper more easily than the rest of us.

In fact, the greatest sense of entitlement in the history of this country does not attach to the poor and deserving who need our social safety net in order to survive, but to the denizens of the other end of the spectrum in our society who've always been accustomed to virtually unfettered and unlimited access and opportunity, irrespective of their qualifications. And, in a cruel but revealing twist, it is they who have claimed the mantle of meritocracy and enforced it so brutally against others who would presume to rise above their station. That the rest of us have had to make our way in this world and our climb up the rungs of our society by facing questions as to our qualifications and by forging ahead into the strong prevailing headwind of supposed meritocracy - how cynical, hypocritical and utterly false this pretense has been proven to be yet again this week! - is one of these 'quiet costs' of White Supremacy. I've never heard of George W. Bush being asked to apologize for his Yale and Harvard educations, but I and so/too many of my friends have been challenged in this way over the years. I wonder why?

(We all know - but far fewer acknowledge - that the reason is one word: Privilege.)

And, truth be told, I've never bought into the inferiority thing, even though my belief in myself was challenged constantly when I was younger. It wasn't about being Black or unqualified. For me, it was about competing at the very highest levels in our society. After all, I'm 'just' a bus mechanic's and librarian's son from inner-city Detroit, right? When I doubted myself at Harvard, it wasn't because of my African-American heritage, but because, in the parlance of the place, so many of my classmates were so 'wicked smart.' As were so many of my colleagues on Wall Street.

But, then again, so am I: Lord knows it takes a whole lot of smarts - in both book and street forms - and moxie to make it out of the Murder Capital of the World in the 1970s to the Ivy League, Wall Street and beyond. And I found the same to be true of so many of my fellow first-generation mainstreamers (whether they were Black like me or brown or white or of any other shade ... or gender or sexual orientation or religion or national origin or...). Actually, it turns out that our race/difference was, has been and is irrelevant; what has always mattered most is the level of cultural fluency that one is able to evidence in the most elite settings. In other words, can you fit in and then flourish?

Which brings us back to the reality that the biggest challenge is access … to educational and professional opportunity, to a better life, etc. So while I condemn their methods, I understand the motivations of the wealthy and powerful parents who've been exposed - and, indeed, charged - this week: they want what everyone wants, a great/better life for their children. That they would have to bend the rules illegally for their progeny was simply an inconvenience to the Privilege (read = Entitlement) that they've felt and to which they've become accustomed. And, again, funny how no one has raised the cost of the undue pressure that having this access has had on their children. Hmmm....

No, only the Black and brown (etc.) recipients of formal Affirmative Action - and to an appreciably lesser extent, female ones - have been subjected to the 'inferiority tax,' yet another pernicious 'quiet cost' of White Supremacy (in its most dominant form, that of [Patriarchal] White Male Hegemony). Hey, guess what, America? It turns out the rest of you are figuring out what we Affirmative Action babies have always known: not only are we not less qualified, but, in fact, we're far more qualified than many of the covert beneficiaries of access … except we're the only ones who've and been made to feel bad and/or be questioned about it.…

So where does this leave us? With yet another social proof of a reality that we have long denied/downplayed and with which we must grapple: the (increasing) class- and race-based inequality in our society (and, indeed, world). Simply put, despite the flowery words of our founding documents, this country was designed to be and has been fundamentally inequitable, especially with respect to the allocation of assets and opportunity, throughout its history. It has always favored the rich and powerful - who, again, it must be noted, are virtually exclusively white - over the rest of us.

In fact, it's a cruel irony indeed that the rights ascribed to American citizens in those founding documents were actually conceived to apply only to white male landowners. Since then, of course, white men of all stations have garnered and enjoyed more of these rights than any other group, so ours remains a fundamentally unequal - and, in many cases, largely separate - society. This reality has propelled two opposing trends in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement a half-century ago: increasing access afforded to People of Color (including via Affirmative Action for small portion of them) and a backlash against their progress from whites who've felt threatened by it.

How else can we explain the frightening and damning paradox that after our country elected its first African-American president, it then elected one of its most profoundly bigoted? And while the cynical and politically powerful (and, again, virtually exclusively white) would have you focus on terrorism by brown people of a different religion, the reality is that virtually all terrorism that we've experienced in our country in the last decade has been perpetrated by alienated white males, in no small part emboldened by our current abhorrent president (and in reaction to our previous one who was markedly different in a very obvious way), though there is a deafening silence about the latter reality in our national discourse (at least from the members of one group within our political leadership).

What's sad is that this is all so very simple. The truth is that we need to accept and address three realities about our situation in order to make ours a better country for us all:

First, we must acknowledge that we all want the American Dream, and especially want it to be true and attainable for our children.

Second, we must acknowledge the profound inequality in our society that has made that American Dream but a cruel fantasy for all but the very few at present.

Third, we must provide more equitable access to opportunity in all its forms - educational, professional, social, etc. - which has to mean that we will offer opportunities to the historically disadvantaged for a period of time until it can be proven that the they are no longer excluded by virtue of some immutable characteristic.

Oh, yeah: we also need to acknowledge and address a fourth reality about our society: the time for more equitable access has in no way, shape or form passed. As this college cheating scandal has reminded us, the rich, white and powerful continue to play by a very different set of rules than that available to the rest of us. And despite the cynical tropes propagated in the right wing media, Chris Rock's wry observation is still true: even though he's rich, because he's Black, there are very few whites who would actually trade places with him. So, too, with respect to Richard Pryor's incisive social commentary-cum-comedy of almost a half-century ago to the effect that whites and People of Color tend to have very different - if not polar opposite - experiences of and relationships with the police in far too many communities across this country. And the 'debate' we are having about whether we should honor or disassociate ourselves from the secessionist, treasonous leaders of the Lost Cause who are memorialized in marble and iron in places of honor across our country? And the appalling and immoral exclusion of transgender citizens from equality in serving in our military. And the immoral treatment of the asylum seekers - and especially the youngest, most vulnerable ones - at our borders. And.... These (and so/too many more) are the 'quiet costs' of White Supremacy that must be eradicated before we can be and are all equal heirs to our professed creeds.…

And despite all evidence to the contrary, I must admit a fundamental hope and confidence that I cannot shake: I believe ours will become a far more equitable society in the decades ahead. I know that it will be challenging and fraught with both great progress and troubling regressions, but the trend is so clear to me. When I look at the social engagement of our youth, our most diverse generation yet, I am heartened and inspired to hope that they will make good on the promise of a better world that they represent. And I am comforted by the demographic reality that ours will be a 'majority minority' country in a generation or so: I can't help but believe that the growing numbers of People of Color will virtually force the much-needed if challenging dialogue about how we allocate opportunity in our society. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the myriad issues and developments that could derail us, but I'm even more persuaded by the trajectory of our recent history: the America in which I have lived is a far better one than that experienced by my parents and grandparents, which gives me faith that, in meaningful part but not likely totally, my children and grandchildren - and yours, too! - will experience an even better country in their lifetimes. A perfect one? By no means. But a more equitable and just one? Almost certainly ... if they vote, that is....

I would like to be known as a person

who is concerned about freedom and

equality and justice and prosperity

for all people.

 - Rosa Parks