Benefits of White Privilege

Barry Russell,
Lancaster City

Good evening. Chairman Martin, Commissioners Stuckey and Lehman; thank you for your time tonight. As a short introduction: I'm Barry Russell. I was born and raised in Lancaster County and have lifelong ties to this area. I live in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Lancaster City and co-own and operate a small business, Rainbow PET Creations, located in the 300 Block of North Queen Street. I am active in several local human and social justice organizations including Rainbow Rose Community, which has a specific and intentional outreach to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in Lancaster City and County. I am a member of First Reformed Church UCC. Board, members and staff of Rainbow Rose Community and Rainbow PET Creations stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the dozens of other cooperating organizations, groups and individuals gathered here this evening, representing wide community support for the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission.

Speaking out in support of the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission I'd like to take just a little different approach to the discussion tonight and chat a bit about the “Benefits of White Privilege” and the intrinsic value of an entity such as the County Human Relations Commission. As a white man who’s been thinking about how I benefit from white privilege, I see hat so much of it consists not only of what I do get to feel and experience but of what I am privileged not to have to think about or experience.

For example, it looks to me as though a cornerstone of white privilege is simply not having to think about race or sex or a disability, not having to think about my being a little different and how people are going to respond to me because of it. Given my living circumstances, I could easily go through an entire day and have absolutely nothing to remind me that the subject of discrimination exists–even though I may walk past several Latinos on my way to work, buy a paper from a disabled man, and talk to the Black teller as I make a deposit at the bank.

But, to come in contact with persons that look different from us is not the same as being aware that racism, sexism, homophobia and all the other -isms is still a raging problem in this county and country. The ball is in my court about whether I’m going to think about it or not and how much I’m going to think about it. A person of color or other minority does not have this choice. To live and to function in this society is to be forced to think about race and racism and sexism whether one wants to or not. In my testimony, I’ve attempted to write as deeply as I could about white privilege and how it relates to the County Human Relations Commission.

This is not about all white people, or even all white men, because I believe there are important differences based on our individual personalities and how we tend to interact with other people; our size, how we look, what our living circumstances are, including how isolated in white surroundings we are.

1. I have the luxury of living all my life in the dominant society where the accepted norms are what I grew up with so they all come naturally to me and I can fall into them as easily as breathing.

2. Even though I am no more intelligent than most persons of color, a woman or a person with a disability–and am sure I’m less intelligent than many–to another white person I may sound more intelligent because my normal speech patterns are the patterns of the dominant society. My entire life I’ve had the “advantage” of hearing all around me the accepted way of speaking which gets one ahead in this world and, therefore, it is my natural way of talking.

3. As to school, I went through the educational system being taught by teachers who expected me to do well, and who pushed me to do even better. I never felt a teacher had written me off as a waste of time and I always felt they assumed I would attend college.

4. I never face the awkward situation of being the owner of a business who, because of my skin color or sex, is mistaken for an employee, or any number of other such predicaments.

5. At a job interview, I don’t have to go through the excruciating “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation where I have to try not to appear stupid or incompetent in any way (knowing that they are ready to pounce on and magnify the tiniest slip) while also trying to make sure not to appear too smart, as smart as the interviewer.

6. Speaking of job interviews, when I write on an application form that I’ve never been arrested or incarcerated, of course they never question that–in fact, I can only imagine how shocked they’d be if I did write yes to either! I’ve never experienced what I’ve heard described by African American men: the awful realization that the interviewer doesn’t believe you so they keep bringing the discussion back to it to try to get you to admit you were lying and that you really do have a record.

I’m ashamed to admit that up until a few years ago I still felt that many Black persons were too sensitive about racism; women were too sensitive about sexism and, believe it or not, GLBT people were perhaps a bit too sensitive about heterosexism; that they sensed slights where there weren’t any. What this means is that in my white omniscience-read colossal white arrogance-I knew even better than a person of color or a woman or a transgendered person what discrimination was and wasn’t. Boy was I wrong about that! I'm still learning what it means to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. These are my findings so far and I’m sure there is even more to see, and I plan to keep on looking at the subject.

To close, I encourage the Commissioners to examine all aspects as they review the work and benefits of the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission. While money, budget and efficiency are certainly important areas to consider, please do not disregard the worth of an agency that we cannot see...peace of mind, access, community support, engagement and a sense that we as a people and community are able to learn from, live with, support and encourage even those that seem very different from us.

Thank you.
Barry L. Russell
Rainbow Rose Community
rainbowrosepa@gmail.com

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Barry Russell

The opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and are not the official position of the
Lancaster County Democratic Committee.