Privilege and Inequality: To End the One, We Have to Address the Other….

Privilege is not knowing that you’re hurting people and not listening when they tell you.

- Dr. DaShanne Stokes

We’re tired of talking about (White) Privilege, aren’t we? Truth be told, this is especially the case because it’s so uncomfortable for its beneficiaries, but talk about it we must, because it’s still very much with us. So many of our societal problems at present have their roots in recent history, though, in the main, we’re unaware of this yoking reality. Which is why it’s so hard to envision let alone achieve true equity in our society.

When significant numbers (i.e., a majority) of our white fellow citizens aren’t claiming – falsely, of course – that racism is more prevalent and proscriptive against them, others heed calls for restorative justice with protestations that they haven’t participated in Privilege, actively or passively. Truth be told, for many in this latter camp, their perceptions are honest, if inaccurate. The problem is that, both as a nation as a whole and broadly as individuals, we’re so ignorant of our history – including the damning parts of it that’ve occurred in our own lifetimes – that it enables too many of us to exist in blissful (and, we believe, exculpatory) ignorance.

So, should our goal be to bring these folks down because their Privilege blinds them to its very existence? No, my goal is to bring awareness in such a way that it will prevent them from being indifferent to the plight of so many of their fellow citizens, especially those of Color.

One example is with respect to the stunning wealth gap across racial lines in our country: For example, some studies have found that, on average, whites have ten and to twenty times (10x-20x) the wealth of their African-American peers. If you’re a racist, this is simply proof of the massive economic superiority of the members of your tribe. By contrast, if you’re a realist, such a stunning differential has to lead you to raise questions about how such a yawning (and growing) inequity could come to be and persist for decades and decades.

(The short answer, of course, is institutional/structural racism, one of the greatest propellants of Privilege that, by its very nature, is often unacknowledged. In fact, we’ll see its pernicious presence momentarily.…)

In order to rectify this inequality, we have to educate ourselves and disabuse everyone of the ignorance that sustains Privilege. After all, when something benefits you but you don’t realize it, and it doesn’t seem to be a problem (for you personally and because you’re not aware of its impact on others), you’re less supportive of attempts to ameliorate inequality, and, in fact, may be motivated to fight to preserve the unjust status quo.

And don’t be fooled, we’re widely and wildly unaware of the scope of the inequality in our society, which is why this education is so imperative. As one recent study uncovered:

In “Americans misperceive racial economic equality,” Michael W. Kraus of Yale SOM; Jennifer A. Richeson, the Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology at Yale; and Julian M. Rucker, a doctoral candidate at Yale, write, “Our results suggest a systematic tendency to perceive greater progress toward racial economic equality than has actually been achieved.” (Emphasis added)

For instance, one question in the study asked: “For every $100 earned by an average white family, how much do you think was earned by an average black family in 2013?” The average respondent guessed $85.59, meaning they thought black families make $14.41 less than average white families. The real answer, based on the Current Population Survey, was $57.30, a gap of $42.70. Study participants were off by almost 30 points.

The gap between estimate and reality was largest for a question about household wealth. Participants guessed that the difference between white and black households would be about $100 to $85, when in reality it’s $100 to $5. In other words, study participants were off by almost 80 points. Participants were also overly optimistic about differences in wages and health coverage.

Compounding the problem, when quizzed on whether the country has gotten more equal over recent decades, participants overestimated the degree of progress by more than 20 points.

Again, it’s not just that we’re ignorant of how fundamentally economically unequal our country is, it’s that we assume it’s so much better than it really is that we’re not inclined to address the issue or see the (pervasively inequitable) status quo change.

Another pernicious aspect of Privilege is that it’s assumed to be distantly historical, so its modern-day beneficiaries protest their innocence vociferously. For example, when the issue of economic reparations is raised, invariably protestations like “My family didn’t own any slaves,” etc., result. And while this may be true in most cases, those same folks are beneficiaries of other forms of Privilege that continue to this very day.

Are you aware of the virulently racist and century-long record of discrimination by our very own government against African-Americans? From the broken promises of the Reconstruction – no, we didn’t get our proverbial “40 acres and a mule,” but tens of thousands of white families did get federal land grants and other benefits that enabled them to begin to build wealth – to the racist legacy of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) – yes, redlining was real, so check out the infamous 1939 redlining map of my hometown of Detroit, and think about how being prevented from accessing capital impoverished Blacks while being provided that access enriched whites – to the “urban renewal” initiatives of the 1950s and 1960s that preyed upon the already dispossessed – enabling suburban white commuters easier access to their jobs in the downtown areas of American cities while decimating the poor and largely of Color communities through which they were built – to…. Well, you get the point.

Or maybe you don’t, so let’s make it plain: Our absolute and relative economic standing has been shaped by both public and private forces in recent history. The rampant housing discrimination perpetrated against People of Color especially in the decades after World War II that was accompanied by an elevating and expansive set of benefits simultaneously bestowed upon whites – which is one of the primary causes of today’s yawning wealth gap – occurred during our, our parents’ and our grandparents’ lifetimes. Not long ago in some faraway place, but right here in the very places where we were all born, raised and our lives’ trajectories determined in meaningful part.

Though I suspect that very few whites are actively celebrating this institutional racism and the advantage that it’s conferred upon them, the vast majority of them are benefiting from it, which is why it’s imperative that we bring these hidden barriers to light.

Again, as so thoroughly and compellingly detailed in Thomas J Sugrue’s award-winning book The Origins of the Urban Crisis, we’re not talking about just a little bit of discrimination against Blacks and a little bit of help for whites. We’re actually dealing with a holistic system of simultaneous enfranchisement and disenfranchisement that was sustained for decades and is the reason that so much of my hometown of Detroit lies decimated at this very moment, while it suburbs, on the whole, prosper.

Yes, the Spirit of Detroit is sparking a renaissance in the city now, but the metaphorical hole out of which it’s digging was intentional and reinforced by local and national government policy for decades. It’s no accident that there’s a segregated center city populated mostly by those of Color surrounded by wealthy white suburban enclaves. And though, in reality, none of today’s successful People of Color is precluded from living in any of the latter by law, having to overcome generations of one’s family being largely shut out of wealth-building opportunities has significantly reduced the number of those able to do so.

Which is why we must continue to talk about Privilege: its historical legacy is very much a part of our lives today.

Of course, I could go on to detail how People of Color were systematically disenfranchised in the labor markets, the political realm, etc., but since the story is the same as in the situations that I’ve already detailed, I’ll simply refer to them and ask that you consider the truly comprehensive nature of the structural barriers to equality that African-Americans and others have faced. It’s why, relatively speaking and on average, they’re so poor and whites are so wealthy (which, in reality, means that some whites are so fabulously wealthy).

And, at this point, if you’re still inclined to argue against the reality of institutional racism in our society and its causation of the Wealth Gap, in addition to Prof. Sugrue’s excellent book, read Richard Rothstein’s powerful and comprehensive The Color of Law, Heather C McGhee’s profound and encompassing The Sum of Us and Isabel Wilkerson’s exhaustively authoritative Caste, for starters. Then let’s reflect on what you’ve learned and begin to craft solutions that can enable the fortunate to continue to thrive while not thwarting The Other from doing so as well.

No, really, I don’t like talking about Privilege, either. But until we can talk about it and acknowledge its persisting, pervasive and profound impact on our society, not only will economic (et. al.) inequality continue to grow, but our very democracy will be imperiled, exacerbated in no small part by the transformative demographic changes that’ll reshape our country in just a generation’s time.

As Frederick Douglass reminded us, power is never given voluntarily by the privileged; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Or, we could be smarter about this, educate ourselves and, in partnership, make conscious choices that eliminate the disenfranchisement of the many that has enabled the incredible entitlement of the few.

For sure, it’ll be a rocky road, as reckoning with The Truth always is. Yet, naïve as this may sound, I believe in my core that, collectively, we are both more inclined to consider constructive alternatives and will benefit more from them than we are to witness the destruction of our democracy and the demise of the greatest – yet admittedly imperfect – experiment therein in history….

Privilege yields opportunity and opportunity confers responsibilities.

 - Noam Chomsky (1967)

 

'Justice' in the Narrowest Sense....

America has breathed a sigh of relief: a murder that we saw on video resulted in the conviction of the killer. The justice system worked. So why were we all so apprehensive?

Because it literally took the crime – both against a single man and against our collective humanity – to be filmed, go viral and be seen by hundreds of millions around the globe, spark a new chapter in the fight for Social Justice here in the United States with demonstrations by tens of millions in the streets of cities and towns around our nation and the conclusion of a three-week trial during which we heard far more about the victim’s alleged character deficits than the perpetrator’s more than decade-long record of cruelty and inhumanity supposedly in service to the state.

Or, to make it plain, let’s consider the following question: What does it say about our society and our ‘justice’ system that securing a conviction for a murder that we all saw take place wasn’t a foregone conclusion?

Relieved that the system worked – for once – many have been moved to proclaim this outcome to be “Justice” … and, technically speaking, it may be: the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Justice as “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.” It further defines “Just” as “acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good : RIGHTEOUS” and “being what is merited : DESERVED.”

By securing a conviction and thereby subjecting the murderer to an as yet to be determined punishment, this outcome could be considered both morally upright and merited and thus just.

But only in the narrowest of senses because what occurred yesterday was the confirmation of accountability, as we have so much more work to do and so much farther to go to achieve true justice in our society.

Even though this case may have resulted in an appropriate outcome, the realities of life for People of Color – and especially African-Americans – continue to be challenging and, in fact, grim relative to their white fellow citizens. So before you go celebrating this rare but positive outcome and declaring it Justice in the fullest sense, consider the following:

•     African-Americans are still three to six times (3x-6x) more likely to be killed by police and 1 in 1,000 of us will be.
•     Virtually none of the officers who kill us will be held accountable.
•    The ‘Drug War’ has been a war on People of Color and Mass Incarceration continues – phenomena in which our society preys on People of Color and especially African-Americans – as despite the fact that the latter use drugs at about the same – or a lower – rate as whites, and in numerous studies have been found to be less likely to distribute them, African-Americans are five to seven times (5x-7x) more likely to be imprisoned.
•    But for Darnella Frazier’s bravery and presence of mind to film this tragedy, George Floyd would’ve been just another anonymous Black man who died at the hands of police, not the painfully symbolic reminder that our country values African-American life so little that a movement called Black Lives Matter is somehow controversial.
•     Seven-year-old Gianna Floyd will now forever be without a father.
•     George Floyd had to die for his life to matter to us.

This is but a foreshadowing of the work that we have left to do, so celebrate today, perhaps, but realize that ours is a long, long road ahead to make real the promises of our nation – and especially that of Justice – to far too many of our fellow citizens. And though, as the Rev. Dr. Cornel West has reminded us, Justice is what love looks like in public, remember that in order for a little girl’s father to “change the world,” he had to be murdered in front of our very eyes.…