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WHITE_PRIVILEGE

                                             July 18, 2020

Sometimes I climb up a tree that
overlooks the path around Lake                    Reading Ta-Nehisi Coates
Merrit in Oakland.  I sometimes                   has me thinking about
hang around there, reading a book                 these things.
while people occasional run or
walk by on the trail.                                     TA-NEHISI_COATES

    This is not a particularly difficult
    tree to climb, because it's on the side
    of a hill: you essentially step *down*          It is, however strangely
    from the hill to get to the lowest branch.      private: the way it's set
    There's another, higher path that goes          up, no one looks in your
    along the crest of the hill-- there's           direction when you're up
    nothing particularly difficult or athletic      there, you're concealed by
    about climbing this tree.                       the habitual gaze people
                                                    fall into when going by.

I went by there one night and showed the place to       They look at the trail
Dangerbaby-- the next day she mentioned this to a       or out over the water,
friend (a black woman, native to Oakland), who          the trees get barely
immediately commented "That's white privilege!".        a glance.

She would be reluctant to do something like that
herself, and worry about any black person who
did it, because someone might react in that
all-too-familiar way of calling the cops-- and
perhaps making up details to convince the cops
there's reason to act.

I can certainly see what she's talking about,
but something about the accusation of "white
privilege" rubs me the wrong way:
                                        
   It is not a problem that I have some      
   tremendous amount of "privileges"--      It's not actually a privilege
   it *is* a problem that black people      to be able to presume that
   don't have the same ones.                police are unlikely to harass
                                            you without cause.
   Myself I don't even feel like I          
   *have* a tremendous amount of                My fellow white people, by
   privilege.  Cops don't particularly          the way, often seem a little
   like me, and it's not like I don't           delusional about their
   feel the need to keep my head down           faith that the authorities
   to avoid encounters with them.               are on their side.
   
   Needless to say, I can only imagine                 But the relative
   how bad the problem would be if I                   freedom to engage in
   were black, but it's not like it                    this sort of delusion
   goes away just because I'm not.                     is one of the
                                                       differences at hand--
   
        One of the things about climbing this tree        There are *real*
        is that while it may be an odd thing to           differences
        do, it's a fairly discreet one.  If I had         between the way
        normies giving me the fish-eye, I would           cops treat black
        probably get out of there pretty quickly.         people-- the
                                                          numbers of
                                                          unarmed black
                                                          people killed by
                                                          police prove
                                                          this.  It often
                                                          seems to me
                                                          though that just
                                                          as bad as this
                                                          is the fear that
                                                          comes with the
                                                          knowledge of the
                                                          situation.
   
   
                                    Making people aware of all of this is,
                                    of course, is the goal of using the
                                    line "white privilege".  The question
                                    is "how would you feel about doing this
                                    if you were black?"
   
   
                                       If you take it literally, it seems
                                       to place the emphasis in the wrong
                                       place...
   
                                       Which might be a problem with the
                                       line, or alternately it could be a
                                       problem with the way I hear it.



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