Letters to the editor

February 20, 2008

February 6, 2008

Thanks, Jeff for the observation of white privilege perpetuation. Am here in Tennessee bringing Understanding of Whiteness to corporate America, and also visiting with family. Have to uphold the reality of those two rules in the face of discussion about the schools, about bussing, and about the oft’ used term, the “Race Card” being played as the inner city Black community’s voice is heard through a local outspoken clergy. But please address the struggles of working class white people, of the lower classes squeezed impossibly by the current economics, who do NOT see much privilege in their lives, who have no-one but themselves speaking for them. Here’s where the real dilemma is being played out.

LaurieBe

February 6, 2008

Thanks for this smart and succinct essay. I’ve seen the rules in operation, and seen what happens when I break them, and you’re very right that breaking them is tremendously powerful. The one aspect of the essay that bugs me a bit is that I have also met many white people who have struggled their way TO color-blindness from a lot farther down in the pit. Calling them racist or deriding their achievement doesn’t help to move them along at all. Quite the reverse. Acknowledging what it took to create a commitment to color-blindness out of a family background and general culture that champions white supremacy is a much stronger place to start.

I think that matters because there are many more affirmatively color-blind whites than whites comfortable with the racial clarity that you advocate, and I believe in as well. So, to build a majority of white people who are active against white privilege, we have to be able to honor, work with, and encourage the folks in the next corridor over who have achieved color-blindness. Otherwise, we’ll fall into the abyss of fighting most fiercely over ideological deviation against our closest allies, rather than fighting for a just society with every tool that comes to hand.

All the best, and thanks.

Shan

February 6, 2008

jeff excellent piece! thanks so much for sharing this. hope all is well with you

mollmaud

February 6, 2008

Great essay! Those two points are so simple, so insidious, and so invisible. I also appreciate the action item: watch for them and expose them. Thanks, Jeff.

Janet Carter

February 7, 2008

The article by Jeff Hitchcock incisively identified white privilege's method of maintaining itself. I have read the article three time already, just to ingrain his insights. Thanks.

Michael S.