The Obama Years: The Beginning of the End

White Whine on White Privilege

What the hell can be said about white privilege that hasn’t been said already? Ad infinitum, Ad nauseum.

President Obama’s presence in Washington DC in these times is the absolute worldwide epitome of white privilege if there ever was such a thing.

Those who benefit from white privilege the most say they don’t see it, those who talk about it have no less than 1,000 ways to describe it or portray it, and those who are subject to it rarely say anything at all.

Personal “guilt,” when it comes to white privilege, has nothing to do with the FACT OF white privilege. No one has to feel guilty about it to admit it exists.

Many writers and journalists, particularly a well-known by the name of Tim Wise, have done their level best to break down white privilege to those who insist that no such thing exists.

Those who benefit say it doesn’t exist simply because they are either too poor, too hard-working, or too busy to give racism that much energy, or to accept the blame for some shit that happened before any of us were born.

Yeah, all that; and this too:

I was working for a certain hand therapist and surgeon at Emory/Crawford Long Hospital back in the mid-90s. As a replacement for the young lady and secretary who was going off to transcription school, I walked into one situation and weeks later, ended up in another when the therapist got married and left as well.

The independent company brought in another white female from the whereabouts of Rochester, NY and I began working with her.

Shortly after she was hired, she began to complain about some “ugly situations” happening in our clinic, things that we both recognized and termed as being treated like the “red-headed stepchild” of the clinic pack. We both decided to put up a unified front and go to “headquarters” and talk to the head therapist about the issues in the office with the lack of resources, supplies, and assistance that we needed to run a more efficient and hospital-compliant clinic.

Moments after we both walked in the door together, I was separated from my white counterpart and ushered into a broom closet that had been converted into a small office. The Black office manager, whom I had trained to do her job after not being hired for the job I trained her to do, was handed the responsibility of letting me know that I was being “insubordinate” and was totally in jeopardy of losing my job. [Note: They always send in a Black person to confront us or fire us to make it appear ‘not racist.’ Then shortly after, the Black stooge loses their job, as well, once the deed is done.]

The white compatriot, on the other hand, was ushered off to the executive boardroom into a comfortable cushy theater seat and the story she told on our way back to the hospital was that the head therapist wanted to know why she was “unhappy” and acting so “defensively.” They also had asked her what they could do to accommodate her, and even asked her if she would like a transfer to another location — if it would make her “feel” better.

When I mentioned it to her some years later -I said nothing about it that day after I noticed she didn’t notice it- she still didn’t “get it.” And she had an excuse for their actions, as well.

Figures: Most white people don’t get it because they don’t have to.

You COULD say it was because the therapist was the most valuable and hard to find of the two of us and secretaries are a dime a dozen, but…

1) It was her idea to do the complaining and mine to support her. (Because she was telling the truth about the office ‘situations.’)

2) The head therapist could have talked to both of us at the same time since we both entered the office together at her urging to talk about the EXACT SAME THING.

But that’s not what happened.

I was given the “you have a bad attitude” insubordination treatment with office politics blocks slammed into place, while the inciting whiner was given the “white glove” treatment and HER potential blocks removed.

I could have said it was “not what it seemed,” but I would not have done that because I’d have been lying to myself through and through.

That was one of many, many, many examples, of which I have more of my own personal encounters, and of which I have heard from too many other Black people who have been through and seen the same, even when they won’t admit it.

Amongst tens of other high drama acts that have happened since 2009, this latest call for President Obama to be IMPEACHED for an alleged “offense” that other Presidents have enjoyed and received accolades for (the immigration thing), is a white privilege story in and of itself.

The constant “bombs” that border and hinge on the edge of racism and that cause internalized confusion and populist conflict are highly intentional, and it is designed to prove that Black people are always hollering about ‘racism and white privilege’ when no such thing exists.

Just become some of it hinges on the edge of delusional doesn’t mean the majority of it does.

Millions of Black people around the world, not just in the United States, can’t ALL be wrong.

—PART 7—

The Fawn and His Mother 

  A YOUNG FAWN once said to his Mother, "You are larger than a dog,
and swifter, and more used to running, and you have your horns as
a defense; why, then, O Mother! do the hounds frighten you so?"
She smiled, and said:  "I know full well, my son, that all you say
is true.  I have the advantages you mention, but when I hear even
the bark of a single dog I feel ready to faint, and fly away as
fast as I can."  

	No arguments will give courage to the coward.