White Privledge, Part One

I just finished reading Waking Up White, and at first, I didn't quite know what to think of it. It's a memoir organized around Debby Irving's understanding of race and how it changed. Much of the book involves discovering how much she benefited from being white, a tough, sometimes even taboo subject. So Irving is writing about sometimes cringe-inducing moments. At times I was embarrassed for her.

Feeling confused about my own thoughts, after I finished the book, I read a few reviews at Goodreads.com. Many were complimentary. Some complained that she started out so unbelievably naive that she was disqualified from having anything to say. Others said it was a good book for those (ignorant souls) who knew little about white racism. After this, somehow, I felt a little surer of my own conclusions.

Irving grew up in an elite New England town. Her family had a nice house plus a vacation cottage, membership in a country club, and access to excellent schools. Through her parents and her culture, she absorbed the belief that people like her parents inhabit that position because they and their ancesters have worked hard to earn all that they have. In contrast, people who have less have worked and tried less.

Then, in 2009 at age 48, Irving starts a master's degree program at Wheelock College in Boston and finds herself in a class called “Racial and Cultural Identity.” There she is thrust into a new and disturbing understanding of white racial identity in the United States. The book is the story of her journey plus a report on ways race has influenced life in the United States and its history.

Here is a short excerpt.

Prior to the Wheelock course, my attempts to make sense of racism had been akin to trying to understand a game just by watching the plays. I made guesses based on what I could see. In contrast, the course asked me to study the rules—centuries of law and policy—see how players had gotten into their present-day positions. Suddenly every player appeared in a new light.

The game, it turns out, offers different rules and different starting points for different people. It's drastically uneven contest in which I am among the more advantaged players. Advantage in the game can take several forms: male trumps female, straight trumps LSBT, able-bodied trumps disabled, Western religions trump Easter religions, higher class trumps lower class, and so on. But nowhere, as far as I can see, is any advantage as hard-hitting and enduring as skin color. My white skin, an epidermal gold card, has greased the skids for a life full of opportunities and rewards that I was sure were available to everyone. My notions that America offered a level playing field disintegrated.(36)

I found this an engaging story of Irving's transformation. Also, it provides some helpful information about structural racism. Much of this information was not new, but she presents in a way that is understandable, so that now, it is easier to discuss and explain.  Unfortunately, it doesn't offer a lot of hope for eliminating racism any time soon.