With so much discussion around race relations recently, I thought I would impart an interesting concept I was introduced to.
Many people seem to be focusing on African American problems and injustices and how the legal system could be tweaked to work against minorities. There’s been a lot of talk concerning what odds minorities are up against and what methods they have to cope or react.
But if you think about it, most of these issues are not the fault of minorities, though they are at the receiving end of the problems. The real hold-up is in the attitudes of white people. It’s white people who have been blindly tossing around their privilege in a system largely designed and implemented by white people.
I say “blindly” because if the recent media wave in race relations has revealed anything, it’s the scary majority of white people who aren’t even aware of the privilege they have.
Interestingly, and possibly detrimentally, there’s been a surge of white people attempting to publicly acknowledge their white privilege via Twitter with the hash tag #crimingwhilewhite.
White folk have been tweeting about all of the crimes or misdemeanors they’ve committed and how they got let off the hook.
Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The #crimingwhilewhite has already come under fire, not because of its critique of white privilege but because it is white privilege.
The distinction comes between being upset with how the justice system has been behaving and having to actually live it.
Again, sprinkled with good intentions, #crimingwhilewhite has mostly just been another thing white people have wanted to make about themselves.
Which is fortunate only because, as white people, we are so obsessed with the focus being on us that maybe now we can actually focus on why we feel entitled to certain attitudes and cultural benefits.
Created in response to #crimingwhilewhite, #alivewhileblack is the message to white people that, yet again, they’re thoughtless.
I’ve written about this notion before, but right now I think it couldn’t be written or spoken of enough. White people can’t relate to anyone of color for their being discriminated against. It’s just something white people don’t have to think about ever.
So before you hop on the bandwagon and compose a clever and relevant #crimingwhilewhite tweet, maybe instead stop and think for a minute. Think about what it would be like to be anyone but a white person and reading all these first-hand accounts of justice not being served.
I’m not saying white privilege shouldn’t be addressed and discussed. I think that because we’re not fully aware of such privileges, we should reflect carefully and tread cautiously on just how we choose to do so.
michoman@indiana.edu
