Reflection

Last summer I saw an ad for a new curriculum on White Privilege. I made a mental note that I would like to get a small group together to read it with me. When I finally found the materials, I was impressed and, so I quickly posted on Facebook and sent a campus email to gauge interest. Response was good, and currently there are three groups of faculty and staff working through this study. Thank you to Anne Gibbons, Kaky Bowden and Katrina Brooks for assisting with the facilitation. Many have asked if we will offer this again – we hope to launch a second set of offerings next semester.

So why a study on White Privilege? Most of us are aware of and can identify overt racism. We know a racial slur when we hear it—we may even be willing to confront someone telling a racist joke. We have seen separate drinking fountains in old photographs. Where things get more difficult and uncomfortable is when we start to talk about systemic racism. One in three black men will be incarcerated before age 30. The Department of Justice found that the police and municipal courts in Ferguson, Mo. had consistently violated the constitutional rights of the city’s black residents. Another example is the story of the black female doctor who was  asked for credentials to prove she really had medical training, while the white male doctor was not questioned at all. Any study of poverty, criminal justice, medical services, etc., quickly reveals race disparity, and several of our faculty study race as part of their research.

White Privilege is the status that “white” people enjoy simply by living in a country where whiteness is seen as the norm. Part of the curriculum’s introduction reads, “One of the pernicious and enduring characteristics of privilege is that even whites who long ago became aware of the endemic racism in America, and who challenged themselves to grow beyond their racist pasts, are yet still recipients of privileges that give them enormous economic advantages. Even more insidious is that some of the most committed white allies for racial equity remain largely unaware of the countless ways that privilege manifests itself daily in their lives. This curriculum is a concerted effort to enable allies to see with new eyes how privilege works.”

As we strive to talk more openly about race on the Lynchburg College campus and to be more honest with each other about inequalities in our own community, here are a few resources that may interest you. Harvard has a website where you can “test” your implicit bias by reacting to pictures and prompts, https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html. Take a look at some of these charts. The data is a bit old, but it is a powerful grouping of statistics, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/civil-rights-act-anniversary-racism-charts_n_5521104.html. You may also want to browse the curriculum, http://privilege.uccpages.org/.

Prejudice and racism, whether overt or systemic, are issues of faith and spirituality. I invite you to pray for the true equality of all people. In this season of elections where racial issues are raw in our country, I invite you to pray for our nation and for all of its people. I invite you to pray for our campus, for those who do not feel welcome, and for those who experience hate. I invite you to pray that each of us, no matter our demographics, uses his or her influence, privilege and power on behalf of ALL our neighbors. AMEN.

Blessings, Stephanie