Take a Deep Breath
Warning: This article may contain trigger items. It also contains things that may confuse or even piss off people. It is written from a first person point of view and with the understanding that not everyone will agree with, or interpret, it. Please keep this in mind as you read it. This is a discussion with myself on my own experiences and understandings, it is not meant as a blanket for everyone. These are just some of the things that I realised as I struggle with my own white privilege and how to challenge and be aware of it. If it helps others out there understand, I’m glad my sharing could help. This is not meant as a ‘fix-all.’
Thanks.
When I was first introduced to the concept of white privilege it was by one of my friends. It was used against me and inadvertently felt like it was an attack. My misinterpretation put me on the defensive and the possibility of a conversation or any education on the topic ended. For a long time I always got so frustrated because while I was not poor growing up we were in no way financially privileged. Then as a young adult I was below the poverty line more often than above it due to my student status. To add to my frustrations I was viewing the world from the point of view of someone who came out as gay in a small farming community. How small? In 2005 when Canada removed gender specificity from the marriage definition I was called by the newspaper, radio, and TV station for the ‘gay advocate’ opinion. As I learned with subsequent conversations with other friends and university: the privilege is not personal and is despite any struggles I might have had in my life. The worst part, I am learning, about white privilege is that most of us don’t even know how to see it. Those of us that do, struggle with what to do about it.
I am a male and I’m white, this article you’re reading is about what I am learning that means in today’s society, and how I am trying to live with more awareness of White Privilege. In 2002 Frances E. Kendall published a paper titled Understanding White Privilege, where she explains “the subject is extremely difficult to talk about because many white people don’t feel powerful or as if they have privileges others do not. It is sort of like asking fish to notice water or birds to discuss air”. She goes on to define white privilege as, “an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions”. Following the bird analogy there is almost no way I can see the air — I can see its effect on the trees though. Peggy McIntosh gave some really great examples of this in her now famous White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. So I can drive without having to worry about getting randomly pulled over, I can shop without getting suspicious looks, and I can consume any media and see a representation of myself on the screen or cover. So there are benefits to being white, yet, am I really privileged? Is that just me living in Canada? I am still gay, and I am still fairly low on the economic scale.
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totes fair right?[/caption]
The answer is yes, I am privileged. Gina Crosley-Corcoran does a brilliant job at explaining this in her piece in the Huffington Post, Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person. The privilege is in fact an intersection of many things: (in no specific order) citizenship, class, gender, sexual orientation, sex, and ability that all play into how we exist in the world and in societies. So I am part of white privilege despite my socio-economic differences from people who are elites. I may not be as privileged economically, and I may have to worry about holding my boyfriend’s hand, or dating my two partners publicly. Nonetheless, the institutionalised benefits still have me set up better than a person in my same position who had a different skin colour. That’s the privilege.
I’m lucky, I had the right people around me who were patient in educating me in what it means to have white privilege even if I don’t see it all the time (Delano-Oriaran & Parks, 2015). The place and group of people who have helped me along the most is one I am involved in. I am the Tabletop & Roleplaying game Coordinator for GaymerX. A gaming convention in California that focuses on creating a safe space focused on, yet not limited to, marginalised groups. I am responsible for finding people to be guests, Bosses of Honour, for my part of the convention. Last year was my first being a part of the group. Being a late-comer to the Con organisation I ‘hail-mary’ asked people from the three top RPG companies in North America. Everyone I invited came and brought an element to the Con that didn’t exist before. It was great that these people all came and they were very welcome. The concern? My ignorance of privilege stopped me from seeing that while they all worked hard to get where they are, and are all very vocal members of the gayming community who are promoting social justice in the industry, they were all white, and four of the five were male. GaymerX is about giving a voice to people who work equally as hard, yet are still not seen because of their non-white maleness. Why is this significant?
It’s significant because most the other Cons always seem to bring the white guys, we are the ones that are providing a more diverse option. GaymerX is not cutting out people, it’s simply giving those marginalised groups, who often have a lesser or no presence, a prominent visibility. It’s giving access, not just opportunity.
This is one of the arguments that was brought up by Mathew Rodriguez in a call out about the overt whiteness in male gay media , and in Hollywood overall. Cultural media is still insisting that we all want to see white people in leads and covers because that is what we buy. Rodriguez sums up his thoughts well, “[p]eople of color deserve a spot at the table when it comes to creating media narratives. Also, a media landscape that doesn’t reflect the gay community’s diverse reality is an unjust one.”
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Better? or Worse?[/caption]
Yet despite these critiques, the media landscape in Hollywood is still problematic. There is a major issue with the dominance of white male leads in the movies. Instead of getting better it seems to be staying the same. This past month it was announced that Scarlett Johansson would be starring in the live action of Ghost in the Shell and Tilda Swinton will be playing the Ancient One in Dr. Strange.
Both casting choices caused waves on the internet. For Swinton, I wonder if instead of a racist representation of an Asian man, as was the original comic representation, they were going for more of an androgynous non descript, non gendered person. Not to say they could not have done the same thing with a person of colour as well.
Screenwriter Max Landis had the best intentions at heart when he made this video trying to explain why Johansson is playing an asian character.
However his argument that the problem is ‘cultural and we should not be blaming Hollywood’ is problematic. I agree there needs to be a change in our culture, and so does Landis, a few days later he posted a response to his own rant.
That in no way absolves the film industry as it is one of the most influential in the world. Films from Hollywood are shown across the globe. Thus, if all we see are white people, mostly male, on the screens how can anyone not white male identify with that? More frustrating, when they do identify, what does that mean about that culture. Muhammad Hasan Askari in “Color in Film:Why and to What End?” states, “the first fundamental aspect of [human] nature dictates that human beings wish to see their own image — their own way of life, their own world views [sic], and passions — in everything; they derive great satisfaction and joy from seeing some aspect of their lives replicated before them” (168). Hollywood is a primary provider of that replication. Yet it claims ignorance and absolution often using the answer that Landis provided, that we need the star power to make the film.
Quite simply, none of us know if non white people would do well in movies, in leads or full roles, because we have never really been given a fair chance to judge that as an audience. Furthermore, to continually replicate and reinforce a western way of life, world views, and passions in the movies as an insult to the moviegoers of the world. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is a recent example how non white male leads can actually carry a blockbuster. It could be argued that it’s an unfair example as it is “STAR WARS” and was destined to make money. This is true to a point, yet ask most people what they think of the prequel trilogy. They made money, though nothing compared to this recent one. I think there was more a reason because it is Star Wars. It is seen world wide that a person of colour and a female can lead a film and it can still be awesome.
It comes down to this. Until I learned about what White Privilege really is and not what I thought it meant I didn’t see it. I didn’t know how. Everything about white privilege is based on what everyone around me has decided. I didn’t give a second thought to the idea that the movies I were watching were mostly white men. I didn’t think about who I was seeing represented at a Gaming Convention. I rarely thought about what it meant to be white and what that means with the police. When you mix that ignorance with apathy and misinformation, its a dangerous combination. Maybe it would help to educate and communicate the problem in society if modified the term. Perhaps social privilege, stop worrying about the ‘white’. Maybe that will help us talk about it more and allow for intersectionality to play more of a roll in our understanding.
There is hope. There are changes. These will come slowly as many things in human cultures do and I have faith they will come. There are projects like GaymerX, and Every Single Word which are challenging the status quo and assisting people like me, and maybe you, in lifting my own veil. All I know is it may be challenging to teach a bird about the air — once you see the air, it gets a little hard to breathe.
References
Askari, M. (2014). Color in Film: Why and to What End?. Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, 5(2), 167–173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0974927614547988
Dottolo, A., & Kaschak, E.. (2015). Whiteness and White Privilege, Women & Therapy, 38:3–4, 179–184, DOI: 10.1080/02703149.2015.1059178
Delano-Oriaran, O. O., & Parks, M. W.. (2015). One Black, One White. Multicultural Education, 22(3/4), 15–19
