Privilegio

Here's an example of how race impacts my work experience: I needed to meet a new client during the afterschool program and asked his afterschool teacher, in Spanish, if I could please take him to my office after he finished his snack and she agreed. I ran into another colleague on my way out of the cafeteria and as we were talking, we walked back over to where the student was eating. The afterschool teacher saw us and said to my colleague, "tell her [me] I'll bring --- to her office." My colleague started to repeat this to me and then said, "oh, sorry,--. Why am I translating to you?" Throwing my hands in the air, I told my colleague that I had just spoken to the teacher in Spanish and wondered why she thought I didn't understand her. She responded, "I'm sorry, ---, it's your color."

This is something I struggle with almost everyday as a non-person of color working in a largely Latino/African-American environment. Sometimes I feel hurt--as if after all this time, some of my colleagues still do not know me and consider me as separate from them. And other times I understand that it is not personal and that if the situation were reversed the white majority might speak to a Latino worker as if she/he were deaf; that the white majority might socialize together and intentionally or unintentionally exclude colleagues of color; that the white majority would make all kinds of assumptions about how and where their colleagues live, how much money they make, and how they spend their time away from work; and that the white majority might not have any idea that the ability to think and do all of the above has been conferred upon them by their white privilege.

I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, but I have always been fascinated with difference--different religion, different race, different culture, different language--and having the experience of living in another country for a significant amount of time, speaking another language, and being in a relationship with a recent immigrant sometimes makes me feel like I have the entry ticket to the "other." But I realize that however much I would like to be viewed as an ally, my "white privilege" can make me an oppressive presence. Peggy McIntosh writes, "I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth." I need to talk about how race impacts my everyday interactions because I find it fascinating and sometimes frustrating and because I know that my ability do meaningful work requires me to do so. If I don't analyze, consider, and get feedback on these experiences, I wouldn't consider myself a very good social worker.

"The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these taboo subjects. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to be now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist." -Peggy McIntosh