Becoming Aware of Our White Privilege
How to be a white ally amid the #BlackLivesMatter movement
As most people reading this will know, the #BlackLivesMatter protests have made headlines across the world. These protests started in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Floyd’s murder was videoed and depicts Chauvin pressing his knee down on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes until he died. Officers J. Alexander Heung and Thomas Lane helped to restrain Floyd, while Tou Thao stood and watched. All through the footage, Floyd is pleading those three haunting words that anyone who has been following the protests know all too well.
“I can’t breathe.”
For a long time, BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour) have not been able to breathe. This is due to the disease that we all know as racism. Racism can be defined as prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s race is superior.
Racism can be overt, such as in the case of Floyd’s and many other black people’s murder. Most people in society denounce overt forms of racism, as most people who have seen or heard about atrocities like Floyd’s murder find them very distressing. But the dangerous thing about racism is that it can also be covert which BIPOC receive in the form of microaggressions.
In psychology, microaggressions are defined as brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups. Examples of microaggressions for BIPOC are being followed around or closely watched in a store, someone crossing the road to avoid having to walk on the same side of the road with a BIPOC or telling a BIPOC that they are articulate or that they speak well, and much, much more. These microaggressions are covert ways of being racist and position BIPOC as thieves, thugs, and being less intelligent than white people.
A theory that goes hand-in-hand with racism is the idea of white privilege. White privilege can be defined as inherent advantages possessed by a white person based on their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice.
Until last year in a psychology paper I took for my degree, I had never really critically examined what it meant to be a white person. While I had heard of racism, I had never heard of the concept of white privilege. It was mind-blowing to me that I had lived so long not knowing that my whiteness has given me and many of the people around me so much power.
Peggy McIntosh (a white woman), developed the theory and a checklist for white people to do as a tangible way to finally see how they are privileged compared to BIPOC.
Peggy McIntosh’s white privilege checklist:
- I can arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
- If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing a dwelling in an area which I can afford, and in which I would want to live.
- I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
- I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
- I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
- Whether I use cheques, credit cards or cash I can count on my skin colour not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
- I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own protection.
- I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my colour.
- I can do well in a challenging situation, without being called a credit to my race.
- I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
- If a police officer pulls me over or the IRD audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
- I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
- I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
- I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize their chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
If you were able to answer yes to all or the majority of these statements, then you benefit from white privilege. I can say yes to the majority of these statements (besides the ones involving children, as I have no children), therefore I too benefit from white privilege.
Oftentimes, white people can get defensive when they are told about the concept of white privilege. White people often see or hear the words white privilege and assume the concept is trying to say that because we are white, we cruise through life with no stress or adversity. This is not what white privilege means.
I am a white person, but I am also a young, queer woman who is a sexual assault survivor, has mental health problems and lives with a chronic pain condition. I also know that abuse and mental health problems have affected most of my family members. Trust me, I understand that life can be unfair to white people as well.
But let me make it very clear, unlike our BIPOC counterparts, our white skin has never been a factor in what has caused us difficulties.
So how can we help fight racism as a white person? To acknowledge the fact that our white privilege is a weapon. This weapon can be used for good, by listening to the lived experiences of BIPOC and uplifting their voices, by educating our white family and friends about white privilege, by calling out not only overt acts of racism but the covert ones as well. But our white privilege can also be used as a weapon of mass destruction. This is by not actively speaking out against racism, electing political parties or candidates with white supremacist policies and ideals, and gaslighting (manipulating someone by psychological means into doubting their sanity and/or reality) BIPOC when they speak out about their experiences with racism.
Hopefully, the majority of the people who have read this article will have learned something. Please do not hesitate to talk to me or ask questions about what has been discussed in this article. Having a constant open dialogue around racism is one of the ways that we can make long-lasting change. But for now, I leave you all with the following quote:
“Let’s say you break your arm. You go to the doctor and the doctor says to you ‘all your bones matter, not just your arm.’ You are going to think they are stupid because yes, all your bones matter, but all your other bones are fine. It’s your arm that needs attention right now. Black lives matter is that arm, saying all lives matter is redundant.”
