I thought I would try bringing our ongoing PM discussion about this to the board and see how it goes (To be fair to you though - We were engaging on the topic of privilege in general and this topic is white privilege, so there is that)
So, I think this story from Hutcherson is a pretty good example of why I struggle with this whole thing.
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More from Hutcherson -
So, while it's hard to do this I know - I'm going to place myself in a similar scenario: I am at a gas station in Ohio - black guy next to me is filling up - I notice that his truck is packed with luggage and furniture - I say to him "where are you going" - He says "Harvard" - I think it's entirely possible and reasonable that I might say "You mean the one in Massachusetts?"5. When I got accepted to Harvard (as a fellow AP student, you were witness to what an academic beast I was in high school, yes?), three separate times I encountered white strangers as I prepped for my maiden trip to Cambridge that rankle to this day. The first was the white doctor giving me a physical at Kaiser:
Me: “I need to send an immunization report to my college so I can matriculate.”
Doctor: “Where are you going?”
Me: “Harvard.”
Doctor: “You mean the one in Massachusetts?”
The second was in a store, looking for supplies I needed from Harvard’s suggested “what to bring with you” list.
Store employee: “Where are you going?”
Me: “Harvard.”
Store employee: “You mean the one in Massachusetts?”
The third was at UPS, shipping off boxes of said “what to bring” to Harvard. I was in line behind a white boy mailing boxes to Princeton and in front of a white woman sending her child’s boxes to wherever.
Woman to the boy: “What college are you going to?” Boy: “Princeton.”
Woman: “Congratulations!”
Woman to me: “Where are you sending your boxes?” Me: “Harvard.”
Woman: “You mean the one in Massachusetts?”
I think: “No, bitch, the one downtown next to the liquor store.” But I say, gesturing to my LABELED boxes: “Yes, the one in Massachusetts.”
Why would I say this, is the question: Not because he happened to have black skin (o white skin or green skin or purple skin or because he was short or tall or skinny or obese) BUT because I thought it was very rare/impressive. How many times have you met a perfect stranger that said they were on the way to Harvard? Or Yale? Or Oxford? It's happened to me exactly zero times in my life. None. So if it did, I would be like WOW - and can certainly see myself replying to Hutcherson the same way.
And if this perfect stranger I met at the gas station in Ohio had white skin? Same as above
And if this perfect stranger I met at the gas station in Ohio had purple skin? Same as above
Tall? Same.
Short? Same.
Female? Same.
Male? Same
Old? Same.
Young? Same.
Asian? Same.
Mexican? Same.
Green eyes with a tattoo of a grilled cheese sandwich on their left cheek? Same
So is this story really about the color of Hutcherson's skin? (The 3rd example in the story is, perhaps, a little more muddy)
First, I think his thoughts of "No Bitch" in one example and "It's too damned late" in the other are a little over the top.Then she says congratulations, but it’s too damned late. The point here is, if no one has ever questioned your intellectual capabilities or attendance at an elite institution based solely on your skin color, you have white privilege.
Is Hutcherson LOOKING (Perhaps with a magnifying glass) really really trying to find something that really isn't there?
Are we? Is a fairly large percentage of the civilized world?
If the answer is yes to any/all of those (I'm not stating it is, I am asking though) - Is that dangerous? Destructive? Divisive?
And, I am still struggling to understand the perspectives/experiences/thoughts that others have on subjects that are as complex as this one is.
