Ignorance is Bliss Photo and Feature Photo: Albie Girl
While in the United States and many other countries with majority white populations, whites see whiteness as the default race or no race at all. Being in the majority around which the power structure is created extends privileges many take completely for granted and totally fail to recognize.
A mistake often made is attaching an emotional value to these and similar thoughts and having that emotion cloud objectivity to the point that the ideas are forgotten in the haze of anger, bitterness and defensiveness.
The following is a list (a very incomplete one) to get people thinking about white privilege as noted by a white girl who has spent most of her life in the U.S., so please forgive the U.S. bias. If you are non-white, please excuse the obvious direction of this article to whites.
In the spirit of free thought, read the following as objectively and open-mindedly as you can.
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Have you ever been in a bookstore and noticed the “African American Literature” section?
Think about the implications of this.
Does it mean that Black American writers are not American writers of American fiction and literature?
What does this mean to white readers who can safely peruse the fiction section knowing their race is reflected in the selection, while perhaps the experience of Black Americans is not?
What does it mean for Black readers?
What does it mean to Black writers who hope to sell their work to a wide audience?
Does it mean that the experience of African Americans is not relevant to the typical, white fiction reader?
As a white person would you feel that you were conspicuous or out of place perusing the African American literature section?
Not all Bigotry is This Blatant
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If so, how does this translate to the experience of a Black shopper?
What really are we supposed to glean from the fact that books are segregated in a bookstore?
Is the African American experience a niche market?
Are bookstores making a point of spotlighting the work of African American writers?
To what purpose?
Do they want to be seen as liberal and fair?
If so, why are they bringing such a conspicuous display of attention to what is usually such a small selection of books?
Do they want to make it easier for people interested in African American literature to find the relevant books?
What other “subsections” of fiction or literature are there in the book store?
Is it significant to you at all that you can choose to think about this or not to think about it and it will not necessarily have an effect on your life?
Can you continue to ignore race politics and theory without having it bother you one way or another?
Is that significant?
Can you think of ways in which other people might not have that luxury?
Is it a luxury?
Are Hughes or Hurston any less relevant to the lexicon than Hemmingway or Plath?
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Of course, this series of questions is based on one example where race is starkly on display. It should go without saying that People of Color are not only Black people. This short list of questions is simply meant to get you thinking.
Recognizing white privilege is an ongoing process that requires active participation by the person who wishes to recognize it.
You must think about your whiteness and its implications, read and talk about it or write about it to be aware of it and understand it.
Race is a touchy subject. Whites are often so afraid of saying the wrong thing that we claim not to see race or that it doesn’t matter to us. We claim not to perceive our own race. In order to avoid taking responsibility for our privilege, we deny that it exists.
Pretty convenient of us to deny race when for many people the day to day fact of their race is a relevant and important part of their identity. Yet we can claim not to perceive that part of the identity of other people with little or no consequences for our willful ignorance.
Playing dumb is a total cop out.
You know it’s true.
Once you acknowledge that whites are recipients of advantages, you must acknowledge that other people are the recipients of disadvantages in a system that does not acknowledge an unfair bias and in many cases denies that a bias exists.
In a recent Newsweek article, white parents’ reluctance to talk about race was exposed as a crucial factor in the development of biased attitudes concerning race in young children. Certain parents who had signed up for a study about race, when told that they were to take a few minutes to discuss race with their children each day for its duration, chose instead to opt out of the study – the discussion was too uncomfortable.
Many seemed to think that discussing race was an inherently racist thing to do. That might be the truth if you hold racist attitudes. The fact that most of us do on one level or another and refuse to own up to it in order to stamp them out is willfully ignorant and destructive.
In this way, white children learn to shun the topic of race as shameful and it becomes the job of society at large to school the majority on how to think about race. It seems like too important of a topic to leave to chance or to heavily biased media outlets, but by and large that’s how it’s done.
These kids associate discussion of race with the fear implicit in their parents’ silence and by proxy begin to view race as a taboo topic, further surmising that there is something to be ashamed about. Too ashamed to talk about.
Ignorance continues to be propagated.
If you’re interested in learning and thinking more about white privilege and its implications for people in majority white cultures, you should check out this abbreviated version of “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh.
Other sites I’ve run across recently are Stuff White People Do, an article to do with the Palins as an example called “What is White Privilege?” from the Chicago Sun Times by Mary Mitchell, and the essay “White People Need to Acknowledge Benefits of Unearned Privilege” by Robert Jensen.
If you are interested in talking and reading more about anti-racism, find groups on the web like White Anti-racist Community Action Network and join up. Another really wonderful resource is the LiveJournal Community Debunking White, a community that does not have open automatic membership, but which you can still access without being a member.
When you start, it’s best to keep an open mind and just allow yourself to consider ideas that you may find foreign, disconcerting or even upsetting. Wait to fully consider ideas before jumping in with questions and opinions. You’ll find that questions you have have been answered before in many ways many times. Dig deep and you’ll surely find change within yourself.
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Search for “white privilege” yourself in any search engine and see what you come up with. Post awesome and interesting finds in the comments field below.
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Also, I just found this:
http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/07/28/guest-post-are-black-covers-segregated-in-book-stores/
Not surprising in the least, but very f•c&ed up.
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I am British (Mixed cultural heritage) and in many bookshops here there tends to be a section titled ‘Black Fiction’
I personally feel that this kind of segregation of reading material does more harm than good. I know that the intention is well meant; catering for our diverse population and giving sections of the community a ‘place’ where they can locate fiction that they might prefer to read as it addresses ‘Black’ issues (whtever that means….)
On the other hand though it kind of makes you feel that you don’t ‘quite’ belong in mainstream society if you have to go looking in a specialist section of a bookshop just to find fiction by an author who happens to be Black.
Personally (maybe because of my culturally mixed upbringing) I will read anything that is good fiction; whether the author is from Australia or Angola, I don’t care, because we all have humanity in common, and the human experience is worth reading about whatever the colour of the author’s skin.↵ -
I have seen that section in stores. Perhaps the next time I need a book, it will be from that section just for the sake of because.
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So here’s a thought experiment for you: a bookstore that *doesn’t* have a $ethnic author section, when someone then asks “Excuse me, where is the $ethnic author section?” what do you suppose their reaction will be when told there isn’t one? I know, having seen it for myself many times.
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xeno –
Is that xeno as in xenophobe? think the reaction depends on the answer. Firstly, if “ethnic” authors are underrepresented, I suppose it’s better to include those authors in one way or another, but to make their ethnicity be the primary and feature, rather than “prose” or “fiction” or “poetry” as a classification is rather bizarre when you think about it.
If these authors were as represented in the bookstore as in the populace, there would be no problem. You just ask the customer who specifically they are looking for and say, “Look under the author’s last name in fiction,” or what have you.
And if someone asks you that and it throws you off so that you find it a difficult question to answer, well, it’s a difficult question.
Are the classifications a way of policing the stock of the bookstores? Of making them stay on top of ordering “ethnic” material?
Thanks very much for all of your thoughts on this, guys.
And Michelle from Britain – yes! All fiction that is good is incredibly stimulating and I would venture to say that fiction that represents cultures very different from our own are more relevant than those that simply reinforce our world view.
Good writing and fiction can change the way people view the world and so limiting the audience in terms of calling one sort “Black interest” or whatever seems like a bad thing to do (to me).
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Wonderful post Kate. Great to see someone getting to the heart of these kinds of issues…
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This is so incredibly straight-forward and honest. I really enjoyed it.
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Whatever it is that you want, the way to go about getting it is by making a valuable contribution to society.
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Interesting comment – sounds reasonable:
Who decides what contributions are “valuable to society”?
And then of course come the arguments re: Who can actually claim given contributions?
I consider myself an ordinary black female. Not a great politician, athlete, performer – In fact, I’m none of those things at all.
Should I wait til I do something which is judged worthy by others before I can get what I want like: ordinary service in a restaurant?
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Reading about the study you note in Newsweek reminded me of another study I learned about in a class–essentially, that by three months of age, babies respond better to people of their own skin color, http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060212_racefrm2.htm.
Some people use this to say that racism is inherent in us. Maybe it is, but the same study also found that frequent exposure to people of other skin colors early on stems the development of racial bias. Which is all the more reason to start talking about race to young children, isn’t it?
While I can see your point on the separation of African-American literature in a bookstore, I immediately thought of my Southern Women’s Writers class in college. I think that the separation of literature in a way is indicative of history–white, male dominated, as that is what was published for so long.
To an extent, I appreciate the highlighting of different genres at this point in history–Women’s, Gay and Lesbian, African-American lit–because all these groups got nothing for most of history, and so highlighting (in a way) seems well-deserved. Still, this is the case as long as you are able to find authors of those groups in the fiction or non-fiction sections at the same time.
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Thanks for putting this out there, Kate. I think the African American section also begs the question– does every racial/ethnic group then need to be part of a separate section of the bookstore? Should there be a section for descendants of African American/African families? For Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans? It’s bizarre to really follow that thought very far.
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I grew up seeing all of those sections – latin American, Jewish authors, Asian or Chinese or Korean etc. Never thought twice about it.
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Such a powerful piece Kate!
Same goes for traveling. Realizing that minority travelers experience the journey quite differently (either positively or negatively) is plain fact – http://www.women-on-the-road.com/stereotypes.html
Thanks for taking this on.
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Thanks, Lola. I like that piece a lot. But seriously, why are Africans so aggressive? (I joke! I can’t believe someone asked you that!)
Christine- There is another study (a very famous one) that was recreated by Good Morning America. They reproduced Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s doll experiment 50 years after the first and found that, though now more Black kids prefer dolls of their own color than before, there were still a high percentage that preferred and identified more with the white doll.
Read about it and see video on RaceWire:
http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/04/fifty_years_later_black_girls.html
Though you can’t count on Good Morning America to really start getting down to discussing “institutional and structural racism” (from the article), it is rather disheartening. Even more disheartening that they didn’t ask any white kids and really expose the problems among whites.
Yeah. I see where you’re coming from with the attempt of bookstores not to simply showcase the work of white male writers. I can’t help but think that if that attempt were more in the mainstream (showcasing queer and Black author’s works in the front window or the front table) that it would be better.
It’s just that it might not occur to many to go check out those books targeted at readers of any minority. Does that say more about us or the marketing? Both, I think.
I’m not really speaking out against showcasing minority writers as minority writers as much as I’m pointing out ways in which reacting against institutionalized racism, though a step in the right direction, often falls short and there are ways in which it can be seen as (and possibly breed) a different sort of discrimination.
It’s possible for those that operate in these systems to fail to see the ways they falls short. So whereas Barnes and Noble might say, what the hell do you want? We’ve go the Black authors right here? We’re done because we’re being fair now,” there are ways that might not exactly be true. The complacency with the system as it is is dangerous.
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Part of the issue, I think, is that different people want different things.
As a reader, I like when there’s a single section where all the black authors are grouped. Unless the writer is famous or the work is a classic, it’s easier for me to peruse genre books like black-romance etc. when they’re all in one section.
On the other hand, I’ve read/heard some black authors plaintively wonder why they HAVE to be black authors and not simply ‘authors’.
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Prejudice still exists, any doubts? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg
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Overclassification brings its own set of problems: what do you do with mixed-race authors such as Zadie Smith? African African authors probably get relegated to the Foreign Lit section… I must admit I had often visited the African-American section, but never really thought about it. It is convenient if you know what you’re looking for, and it’s nice to see differences acknowledged, as Christine said, but there are definitely some unpleasant implications.
As for the doll issue: when my daughters were small, I tried to find dolls that looked like them, but Asian dolls were few and far between in the 70s. I would buy dolls with dark hair and brown eyes, it just seemed to make sense. I used to cringe when my Filipino in-laws gave them blond, blue-eye dolls, telling them how beautiful they were. I always thought the message was: this is the ideal of beauty, and it isn’t you.
Thank you for a thought-provoking piece, Kate.
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The biggest issue as I see it – is how does the author want to be viewed and how free are they to manage that picture?
As for how to classify the book, that doesn’t sound all that complicated. Usually it’s managed in bookstores by publishers/agents. If a biracial author has the ability to appear white – no doubt his/her books will appear in mainstream shelves.
If the author chooses black themed stories, black protagonists or whatever else will code to publishers as “black literature” then those writers and those works have a hard time avoiding being pigeon holed.
Like I said – as a reader I’m pretty happy with the ’sections’. But ultimately, I’d respect the author’s choice for how they want to be known.
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When it comes to the “african american lit” section in a book store, I’ve herd its more about targeting a specific audience then segregating authors the same way there are “young adult fiction,” “sci-fi,” “horror” ect being more content based.
For example, when I was in my freshman year of college we read a book for comp class called “the coldest winter ever” as suggested by a student in the class. It was about a teenage African-American girl growing up in a bad neighborhood in the city. I liked it, and I’m happy I was forced to read it, but as a white girl from the suburbs I didn’t understand half of it. There was slang I didn’t know and ideas I didn’t know (ex. a weave?). This book has an intended audience where the main characters race and culture are a major part of the plot, as opposed to a novel where it isn’t present or unspecified.↵ -
It’s great that you got to read it though; you know what a ‘weave’ is now
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I’m sorry. I find this article highly insulting. Do you really think “white” people of the younger generation are ignorant and racist because they don’t want to discuss how Western society treated/s them compared to other races? I am “white” as you say and I hate the term. All people are shades of brown, and what makes you side with white or black is how you were raised and how you respond to your own genetics. Call me ignorant, selfish, racist whatever you want but I AM THIS “COLOR BLIND.” It DOES upset me that the African American section of the bookstore is called the “African American” section JUST AS MUCH as it upsets me that the “Women’s Literature” section has it’s own designation as well. There are many brilliant African American authors out there who are in my mind simply American Authors. No ethnicity-marker required, and it bothers me every time I walk by the section. I highly recommend Zora Neale Hurston, who says one of my favorite QUOTES, not “BLACK” QUOTES, of all time, “No, I do not weep at the world- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” And that’s how we all should be. None of this race-debate bullcrap. A person is a person and should always be judged on their abilities and heart, NOT their friggen skincolor. I stay silent on the subject of race because I do not believe in it, nor do I want to pass any notion of it on to our children. I do not wish to examine “white privilege” because to me it is a load of malarkey, regardless how “society” sees it. Screw society! We ARE society! By having heart we can change the world and by sharpening our oyster knives instead of dwelling on injustice we can make our OWN justice. I’m sure there are some ignorant people out there so for them I am grateful you have written this article, but please do not ever just bluntly assume that silence is cowardice. My belief on the subject is that, true to the popular African saying, sometimes it IS better to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Forgive me any disrespect I may be showing to your article, but this I cannot just let slide.
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And I quote, “I won’t think about race, no matter how relevant it is to People of Color and you can’t make me so neh neh hen neh – I’ve got my fingers in my ears and I can’t hear you or the weight of thousands of years of prejudice as they back up my every assertion that RACE IS NOT A RELEVANT TOPIC! So there!”
If you think you’re not talking about race here, you just said a white privilege mouthful. You’re showing your ass and you look like a child and I hope that you do some reading (starting with HyderbadChick’s post below yours) and then do some more and think about this.
I hope you think about what you wrote enough to turn red and feel a little sick and the next time you feel like posting some garbage like that, that you instead do some thinking and reading and shutting up for long enough to think about the way other people might feel about what it is you “have to say.”
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“And that’s how we all should be. None of this race-debate bullcrap.”
Maybe that’s how we should be, Arissa, but that’s not how we actually are. You seem to be so adamant about your supposed color-blindness and the way you feel things should be according to your literary quote that you’ve totally refused to look at the way society often works.
“I do not wish to examine “white privilege” because to me it is a load of malarkey, regardless how “society” sees it.”
Well, maybe to you “it is a load of malarkey,” but I think that actually tends to prove Kate’s point, not to debunk it. You make it pretty clear that you’ve never actually had to confront race as an issue in your life because you seem to think race is “the way you respond to your own genetics.” I guess this is a handy, if somewhat illogical and bizarre, way of thinking about or relativizing the idea of race when you don’t actually have to confront the reality of being judged according to your skin color.
To give you one example form my own experience – I have been in two mixed race relationships and am now married to a Mexican man. My boyfriend of two years was African. Every single time he and I went through airport security, they stopped him. Every single time my Mexican husband goes through airport security, they stop him. Just to test the system, I have taken all of our bags through – way more bags than I should have, and with alcohol and all sorts of random stuff in them- and I am never searched. I am white. My husband is searched every time.
Also, I wonder if you’ve ever had to deal with hate mail berating you, your race, and your language for ruining U.S culture? I wonder if you’ve ever had to confront people who assume, from the start, that you have no culture or education and are inherently inferior? It seems to me that it takes a lot of confidence–or ignorance–to declare white privilege is “a load of malarkey” when you are white and apparently have little to no awareness of what it means to be of a different skin color.
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Personally, I feel for the authors of these books who don’t want themselves separated.
As a customer, I’m very appreciative of the separate sections becuase I can peruse and choose when I’m looking for a topic but have no specific title or author in mind.
Given the choice of a bookstore where I have to wade through several other titles and authors that have nothing to do with what I’m looking for and another store that has a smaller section focused solely on what I want, I will go to the store with the sections broken down. .
I can’t imagine any obligation on my part to do the extra work because some people – whether they are customers of these books or not – are offended by the breakdown.
To my thinking putting women’s lit or black literature in one section is similar to putting books on fishing, or auto repair in one section.
I can’t understand how it burdens others when these sections are created? Is something taken away from the other authors? You can’t even say that white authors are thereby deprived of black readers? Nor that male authors are prevented access to female buyers.
On a different note: The ‘colorblindness’ of some doesn’t dictate my experience.
It doesn’t change the fact that I’m viewed as a threat because I wear unprocessed hair. it doesn’t changed the demand of others that I bear the responsibility for modifying my affect, my reaction to negative experience, my weight, and in some countries, my very skin color in order to get the treatment I want.
I’ve lived in the US and India and have traveled to other places.
The message in most places to ME is: You chose not to make the required changes to your appearance – we reserve the right to categorize and treat you as lesser than those who do. At the same time – any reference on our part to said behaviour is an example of being “overly sensitive” or “imagining slights” where they don’t exist.I grew up understanding that laws can’t dictate opinions, feelings or attitudes.
I read many posts from ‘colorblind’ people who feel resentful they have to be punished via for example, separate sections in bookstores?
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Thanks, HyderbadChick. I don’t claim to be colorblind and I struggle against prejudice, but as a white person, I don’t know your struggle and I thank you for sharing it here.
If the post offends you, I apologize. It is not meant to be a post against having specialized sections on book stores to cater to a specific audience, but to be thought provoking for people who otherwise may not consider these issues at all.
I appreciate you adding your perspective here.
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Is not embarassed. I see the value of Hyperbadchick’s post but yours, Kate, I’m afraid is the childish one. Speak like a grownup if you must talk at all.
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That is hilarious coming from you. I take my leave, ma’am.
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Hey everyone. To start out, I’m not one for stating my opinion in most matters, I just find it easier that way. But, sometimes I just gotta leave a comment,lol……
I’m from backwoods Mississippi. And although most people consider this part of the country rascist (and I do know some who are,but, who doesn’t,no matter where you’re from?) I know lots of people of different races, I worked for a man and his wife who were from India. My sister’s husband is Latino/African-American/Mexican, I live in a community that has probably the same amount of whites and blacks.Most of the people I know get along no matter what their race, and I also know this is not always the case. But, I also believe, that the real issue here is not whether the books are segregated,which by the way, I really think they’re just trying to make it easier on the customer, but more important things such as hate crimes . I’m not trying to disrespect your article, just stating an opinion. And also, they categorize Southern writers and such so, I don’t think they are being rascist. Thanks for the article, enjoyed reading it and the comments…Ray Just a “priveleged white hick redneck woman” LOL!!↵ -
Thanks, Ray. That’s an interesting perspective. As I stated above, I see the reasons for books being categorized, but I meant to point out the inequality in the system where this is sometimes necessary in order to ensure that there are any writers of colors at all.
And Southern writers are probably more popular in the South.
Maybe you don’t think of KY as being the south, but I spent most of my life there (so far) and I see where you’re coming from.
I have also been party to many a generalization because I have white skin in which people have imparted to me their views of “them” and you can insert racial slurs into that slot. Even though you say everyone where you’re from gets along, I’m sure you also have recollections of hearing racial slurs and seeing discrimination.
Relatively peaceful existence doesn’t always make for equality. I’m sure band aids are the same color in Mississippi that they are in the rest of the US, for example. Television is biased toward the majority. Media paints people according to race as good and bad. Even in Mississippi, I’m sure this holds true.
I appreciate your perspective here!
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Let’s see if you can truly open your mind to a different view.
To address your example, the Africans have their own section of books or what have you, because that’s what they want. The Africans are proud of their race, for whatever reasons and support their own kind. If they want to hear from whites they’ll go to the other sections in the store.
Now as far as white priviledge goes, what’s the problem? My ancestors survived true climate changes, war, invasions, disease and a myriad of other complications throught history without any altruistic help from the “minorities” ( a misnomer if there ever was one) and came out on top. That whites should fall over themselves in giving away all that was bestowed upon us by our forefathers to an ungrateful and never satisfied intrusive, invading “minority” mass is foolish beyond comprehension. There are no white versions of the NAACP, NCLR or AIPAC. The “minorities” in positions of power aren’t looking for equality, they are playing ‘king of the hill’ as evident in all the groups, organizations and laws that place their race as their foundation. Judging from this article of yours I can see that the preposterous white guilt angle is working well with you.
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Kate:
Thanks for taking this on. I’m eager to check out the links you offer…and offer one of my own favorites: Shankar Vedantam’s blog, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-hidden-brain.
More awake,
DOUG
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Kate, have you read Adam Mansbach’s Angry Black White Boy? I think you’d enjoy it.
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