Q Chats | Anti-Racism | Week 1
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How does privilege manifest in ways that benefit you and in what ways does it harm you?
Bukola Landis-Aina
My education, income and nationality all provide me with incredible privilege when it comes to everyday provision and safety in ways that impact my entire wellbeing. In the past, I would have used terminology like “blessed” to describe my privilege but have come to find this problematic since the implication could be that those who are less privileged are somehow “cursed” in comparison. Also, this perspective seems to counter Jesus’ teaching that blessed are the poor. Privilege harms me in ways related to gender, race and sexual orientation which impacts my relationships, income, profession and my personal safety. My very personality is experienced through the lens of my skin and race in such a way that stereotypes about black women are always at play.
Sarah Ngu
I will answer this question in terms of race and nationality privilege due to space constraints.
I am extraordinarily privileged in many ways—I am a naturalized citizen so I don’t have to worry about my green card or visa being revoked due to minor infractions; I speak English with the ‘right’ accent so most people will not question my intelligence; I am not Black so I generally do not need to fear the police nor navigate various anti-Black oppressions upon which America was built.
As Asian Americans, we are seen as ‘perpetual foreigners’ in this land no matter how many generations back we go; we are survivors of Western imperialism and colonialism; we are exoticized and objectified when we are read as Asian American women; we are often given grunt work and assumed to play ‘supportive’ roles without advocating for ourselves.
Erica Lea-Simka
Most times I “pass” as straight and cisgender. This has no doubt helped me avoid some discrimination and threats to my wellbeing, but this passing also makes me feel invisible at times as a gay cisgender woman. I recognize my privileges as a White, educated, able-bodied, American. I work to be thoughtful about my privileges and how to be an ally in solidarity with different and/or fewer privileges. My awareness and solidarity result in a deep sense of empathy, though that empathy and solidarity has limits as my personal experiences do not include some of the most marginalized identities, such as transgender women of color.
Jessica Wang
In elementary school, our lunchroom seating was determined by race. The white people who were considered “cool” and had a high social standing occupied the bottom floor. I occupied the middle floor along with the less cool white kids, the three other Asians at our school, and a few token Latinx and black students. The remaining black and Latinx students occupied the top floor. That’s how I always felt Asians were represented in our country when it came to race – because we weren’t sure where we fit in with the often white and black binary, we simply placed ourselves in the awkward in between with less privileged white folks and more privileged people of color.
I could tell many stories of white students asking me if I had brought dog to eat during lunch and telling me to go back to China when I left school early for a dentist appointment. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood and a predominantly white public school where I experienced racist micro-aggressions on a daily basis, I longed to hold the same power that those white students did. I wanted to be them.
I ended up attending a boarding high school, and there I began to understand a completely different type of privilege – socio-economic privilege. Being surrounded by an “upper class world” came with an entire culture and vernacular that I had previously been unable to access. I think in some sense, my exposure to this higher-socioeconomic culture led me to become the person I both despised and longed to be in elementary school. I could “pass” in rich, privileged, white environments, not as a white person, but as someone who fit in.
Laura Beth-Buchleiter
Privilege is difficult to recognize because it exists in a “negative” space. Not a “subtractive” space, but in a space created by a lack: lack of fear; lack of want; lack of rejection, etc. We see our privilege when we don’t have to be afraid of being suspected or shot just for the color of our skin. We see our privilege when we get better service because we may look or sound more wealthy or educated. It’s difficult to identify something that is primarily true as a result of things that don’t happen to us.
Kevin Garcia
I'm mixed, and I'm completely white-passing, so in a big way, I'm able to move through the world unbothered by my friends with darker skin. Sometimes I wonder how much of my success comes from the fact that, even with a last name like Garcia, I'm still read as white. And on top of that, I have a beard, which means I often get read as a cisgender man. It's only when I'm presenting more femme, wearing makeup or heels or whatever, that I'm seen outside of those binaries. And then add on the fact that I'm able-bodied, neurologically typical for the most part, and I'm educated... Like, that's a lot of privilege. And it allows me to move through the world easier–I won't lie.
And that privilege often shields me from the suffering of others. I have to constantly turn my head to see outside of my own tunnel vision. The practice of self-awareness and solidarity with further marginalized communities is beyond crucial in times like these. It takes intentionality with creating relationships and opportunities, with and for people in those communities to truly champion equity.
