Thoughts on Good Guy Kyle
Yes, allyship matters, and you don’t have to be an NBA player.
Kyle Korver’s Player’s Tribune piece on white privilege is laudable for a number of reasons. If you somehow haven’t read it yet, you may be the audience who will benefit most. Check it out.
My response was….. different. I’m embarrassed to admit it.
Which is why I want to share it today.
In the piece, Korver commendably observes that blatant racism like that which Westbrook faced in a recent Utah Jazz match might be “easier” to deal with than passive, insidious racism. However, I believe the most powerful impact of this piece is Korver’s proactive divulgence of his initial reactions to the news. Korver shares the socially conditioned bias that creeped into his interpretation of both the Thabo’s nightclub arrest or Westbrook’s court-side confrontation. Why was he at a club during a back to back is parallel to why was she dressed so provocatively, and the fact that his first thought wasn’t is he all right? or damn, I hope they got it on tape is both troubling and, more importantly, Normal. It is Normal in mainstream American white-forward society, for white people and non-white Americans as well, to reserve benefit of the doubt for white people, men in particular, and slivers of it for other demographics proportional to that demographic’s proximity to them.
Stanford’s Dr. Eberhardt says to start by acknowledging bias, and its presence not just in straight white males, but all of us as we are all influenced by the white hegemonic society in which we live.
Publicly admitting and sharing your prejudices is a terrifying thing to do, just as it is essential to societal change. The privileged among us have an ethos that can penetrate hardened prejudiced minds with few words that which might an entire scholarly research publication for someone like me. Many of my closest friends from undergrad, and a few from high school and middle, fall into this category. For those reading, it swells up a knot in my chest every time you speak. It feels like love. 👊🏾
Society will evolve because of the fight led by the oppressed, not a Great White Hope, as Freire, King, Giovanni and countless others have promoted over the years. But allyship matters, and admitting privilege openly to the world so that others sharing that privilege can notice is essential. From a position of privilege, admission of prejudice can scalpel away prejudice that is too set in stone for what feels like a jackhammer coming from an oppressed voice. Props to Korver for his divulgence, but more importantly thank you to those in my immediate circle who call out prejudice in a testy group chat, or who ostracized openly racist classmates, or who rallied parents and faculty when I seemed targeted by a particular teacher. We’re may not pat you on the back or give you 250K followers like Korver, but we don’t forget. The silence immediately following your big reveal may even be deafening if you’re saying something that really stirs the pot, something that likely matters most. Yet regardless of background, we all need behaviors of acknowledgement in our workplaces and living spaces, as they are the classrooms of our adult world. You never know when you will serve as the momentary Korver of your department or your block. You never know who will never forget.
