Privilege

When in class I feel like it's so difficult to bring up the issue of race and class and privilege in part because I spent the last year of my undergrad in black studies courses and studying minorities issues. Social justice is something that I thrive off of and learning about the abuses and injustices in our society is something that for some reason does not depress me but makes me feel empowered and angry. I enjoy learning about social issues and it is like unlocking a piece of the puzzle. BUT! Zalika said one thing in class that really stuck with me. It was the fact that I could choose not to think about race and privilege whenever I want to while she cannot. For some people it's a constant thing and you can't turn it off ever. I have been able to look at injustice from a relatively safe place and this realization was something really hit me.

Of course it is always much easier to see your own lack of privilege than the privilege you do have. My life is full of privilege but it's something I've acknowledge a long time ago and recognize sincerely. I'm not going to get hung up on every big of personal privilege that I receive from being who I am because it will only paralyze me rather than keep me from doing what it is I need to do in life.

It can't be helped that I am a straight, white male, but that's not going to make me feel guilt. I would only feel guilt if there was something I personally was responsible for. I know that if for some reason I never get a teaching job and I default on my loan, people in my family will, painfully, help me out. I am privileged because I can walk by the police on the sidewalk with little fear. I am privileged because I can get a loan to go to Grad school. I am privileged enough that I can ride my bike down the street without the fear that someone will purposefully run me over for the color of my skin. Or I can break in to my own home without a neighbor calling the police like what just happened with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Although the most vulnerable I ever felt was eating at a bar in Redmond, Oregon where their menus had anti-environmentalist hate speech written all over it with explicit threats towards "tree-hugging, Spotted Owl-loving hippies" which I guess meant me. But I was privileged enough that I didn't look that different and I was treated fairly.

Anyway, what I mean is, examine your culture and figure out the system and what you can do to help. That's what I'm trying to do and that's what we will be doing as teachers.