Race Privilege and Nuance

 

I returned to work one day and discovered my office had been moved. Well, I really didn’t have an office anymore. I asked a friend, "what happened?" She mentioned something about the new boss. I did not have plans to find different employment so I put up with what turned out to be a loss of social status and privileges, which I had the year before. No one complained about my work. This was one example of a location in the United States when I was not privileged for being a white man. 

White men can point to examples of discrimination. Perhaps that's what makes it hard to deal with generalizations about race and privilege.

As I read the a WP story of a man who lost his teaching job allegedly because he taught his students that white privilege was a fact and that conservatives are acting to censor what teachers can say about race, I began to think about the lack of nuance in the story.

For the most part, I have not experienced discrimination based on my ethnicity or gender. I’m married and I have seen evidence that my wife was discriminated against in respect, treatment, and pay because of her gender. I'm white and British-American. I believe the reports of friends who are people of color or non-European ethnicities that they experienced discrimination.

My point is that experiencing different degrees

 of privilege can vary with the setting and time.

Critical thinking ought to mean that we analyze situations and the characteristics of people and situations that account for human behavior whether that behavior be favorable or unfavorable or even outright abuse.

Generalizing from personal experience, or even statistical averages, can lead to faulty judgments about individuals and groups and cultures.

What is true of many is not always true for everyone having a particular skin color or gender.

Judgments about discrimination and privilege gloss over other characteristics that influence privilege like personality traits (some people are more likeable than others), age (some people are judged too young or too old), appearance (attractive people generally fare better in life), religion (some religious people are considered strange or odd or dangerous to the majority), ability (e.g., a physical disability) and so forth.

 

Having written what I have written, I recognize:

Most, but not all, black Americans and Britons have not enjoyed the same privileges as have white people for centuries.

Most, but not all, women in America and Britain have not enjoyed the same privileges as have men for centuries.

Nowadays, privilege and discrimination is more nuanced than even in the past few decades when it comes to skin color, ethnicity, gender, sex, religion, ability, and so forth.

Human beings will always prefer their own kind but how they define “their own kind” is highly influenced by socialization, parents, friends, laws, policies, religion, geography, and other factors.

 There is progress. We will not be done until all people are treated equally when it comes to the law and the publicly shared benefits of our nation.