Privilege

Yellowstone River

I live a privileged life. I spent two weeks and 4600 miles on a road trip to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. I didn’t feel unsafe traveling and camping alone, as a white woman, until an old white guy started flirting with me while I pumped my last tank of gas in South Dakota.  I am truly blessed. It was the perfect trip after my first year as a dean of students at a high school. A year where I was thrust into the realities of our students’ lives and the challenges they face for decisions outside of their control. It was a lot for me to handle; I realized how sensitive I really am. I don’t want to see 18 students get arrested in a year. But I also don’t want a boy to manhandle a girl into leaving school for the day when they are fighting. I want to see these students get the help they need now and an education so they can live happy, prosperous lives. Sadly, I’ve turned to stating “you will be arrested for this if I was a police officer” when a student blatantly disregards my request to call home when tardy or to simply take off their hat, because that is actually what I have seen happen. Disregard law enforcement, then you will get arrested. I want to teach them before they are released as adults with their diploma in hand. 

Delicate Arch, Utah

But then I opened up social media when I returned home yesterday and saw the news of Alton Sterling and I am thrust back into reality. Hours later, I found myself on twitter and see a new hashtag #FalconHeightsShooting, a town just down the road. I proceed to watch a 9 minute video of Philando Castile’s last few breaths on Facebook Live. We must start recognizing our own privilege. I can travel across 8 states without fear, yet a black man gets shot after being pulled over for a broken taillight. Now a four year old might live in fear every time she is pulled over after witnessing a man get shot. We must train our law enforcement to balance force with reason. We must train them to better assess the danger or lack thereof in a situation. Based on this police officer’s expletive’s after having shot this man, it is clear he is not a bad man, but he did a bad thing. The same is true of so many people who get shot or are the shooters in police shootings. We cannot execute people in this way. We need non-violent interventions and we need to value human life above all else, including our irrational fears.

I do not want to say to my students that they should listen to authority figures in school or they’ll get arrested outside in the “real world”, but now I fear I might have to say they could be shot and killed for not abiding by a simple request of law enforcement. Why has it come to this? It has to stop.

And it starts with us, white people, recognizing privilege.  Here is one of my favorite depictions of privilege.  This article by the Washington Post describes white privilege "tends to be unintentional, unconscious, uncomfortable to recognize but easy to take for granted."  We need to start with recognizing our privileges and leveraging them for the greater good.  We can't be ashamed of what we have or who we are, unless we chose not to speak up and demand better.