Local view: Racism hidden amid a lifetime of white privilege

It’s hard to see water when you’re a fish. A fish is surrounded by water — literally swimming in it. And so it is hard for a fish to really comprehend what it means to be out of water. How does one understand the buoyancy and softness of water without lying on hard, dry sand? How does one comprehend that others strive for and sometimes die from lack of water when one is instinctively inhaling it? Some fish might say, “I know how others live. I’ve peered above the surface and I get it. I see them bend their necks when they come to drink, so I understand thirst and yearning for water.”

Just as water engulfs a fish, white privilege surrounds those of us who are white or are perceived to be. It is as transparent and as pervasive, and yes generally as difficult to comprehend. It is essential to note that white privilege and water describe systems, or environments, not personal characteristics. The fish isn’t the water. We don’t blame individual fish for the system of water. They didn’t create it. They do, however, benefit from being born into it. We wouldn’t even be surprised if fish, unaware of the needs of mammals, built a water-only world. Dry land doesn’t serve them, so why carve out good space that could be used for swimming. This isn’t meanness; it is lack of awareness.

They would be doing what made sense from their own perspective. They might even claim to understand what those other creatures needed based on all those hours of watching them dip their noses into the pond. They might see mammals’ struggles in a water-only world as being a character flaw in such animals. They are just inferior swimmers. Or, they might say to themselves and to the land animals, we are all the same. Let’s not focus on our differences. That is not very comforting to a mammal asked to live in the water.

One way to get at what privilege is: Think of a time when you were figuratively like that fish out of water. Where and when did you just not fit into the environment? Maybe it was seventh-grade gym class and your body was too big or small. Maybe you’ve experienced a broken leg and finally understood what an advantage it is to be independently mobile in a stairs-oriented world. Women, and many men, recognize the advantages afforded to men — in meetings, at the auto-repair shop or in other settings where maleness garners one an advantage. When we experienced being left out or excluded because of how the environment is set up to revolve around some other subset’s way of being, we experience the exclusion that goes with lacking privilege.

One can either use that experience and the sense of unfairness that goes with it to justify one’s arenas of privilege, where one has the upper hand, the advantage. Alternately, one can use that experience to deepen one’s understanding of one’s own privilege. What if each of the systems one needed to operate in left one feeling out of their element? What if each day brought incidents of exclusion? What if one was continually asked to live and succeed in a setting built in ways that advantaged a group to which one could never belong? The difference between an episodic experience of exclusion and systems of privilege is in the degree and pervasiveness of its presence.

A first step for those of us who are white is to see and understand that white privilege exists; that one’s life would be more difficult in a myriad of ways if one weren’t seen and treated as white.

Until we have listened and heard and believed the experiences of people of color in our community, we are like fish assuming that our experience of water is universal. It is time we begin to see our “water” for what it is.

Kevin Skwira-Brown of Duluth has co-facilitated workshops focusing on understanding white privilege at local conferences and for agencies throughout the community.

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