By Ashley Stokes in Rhode Island’s Future
“…Our white countrymen do not know us. They are strangers to our character, ignorant of our capacity, oblivious to our history and progress, and are misinformed as to the principles and ideas that control and guide us, as a people. The great mass of American citizens estimates us as being a characterless and purposeless people; and hence we hold up our heads, if at all, against the withering influence of a nation’s scorn and contempt.”— Frederick Douglass
David R. Carlin recently shared his life experience through his September 20th commentary in the Providence Journal,
as a youth growing up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in the 1950s and recounted
what it was like to live in a tenement on Beverage Hill Avenue, with no hot
water, and having to sacrifice having a car in order to pay for a sick
sibling’s medical bills.
Unfortunately too many Americans of all backgrounds have similar
stories of struggle, and today the widening of gaps between the classes is a
pervasive societal issue.
I have to admit I had nowhere near as arduous a life growing up
in Rhode Island. My siblings and I were born and raised in a family of color in
Newport with two educated, hardworking and loving parents.
Mr. Carlin recounted his experience as a youth without privilege
to explain his belief that there is no “white privilege” in the greater
American society. He contends that the conception he and other white
Americans have been afforded certain opportunities solely based on their race,
and that black Americans have been denied such opportunities, is
mistaken.
As Mr. Carlin explains “if the average black is worse off than
the average white in almost every category of well-being — health, wealth,
income, education, high culture, gainful employment, etc. — this is chiefly
because of an appallingly dysfunctional subculture that is pervasive among the
black lower classes.”
What Mr. Carlin fails to understand is that white privilege is
not explicit, and when you are the beneficiary, it is even harder to recognize
its existence. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that drug use rates
between white and black users are incredibly comparable.
Yet while black people make up only 14 percent of regular drug
users, they account for 37 percent of those arrested (via Human Rights
Watch). Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia University Law professor found that
under New York’s controversial Stop & Frisk policy between 2004 and 2009
less than 1 percent of stops recovered weapons, and of those found they were
more frequently recovered from white people.
But still, black people were disproportionately stopped as
compared to whites and were 14 percent more likely to be subjected to
force. It should not be lost on anyone as to why Stop & Frisk was
recently ruled unconstitutional.
These are just some of the many data points which corroborate
the fact that the United States has always had and continues to perpetuate a
very real and dangerous problem when it comes to the lack of equality between
the races.
A fantastic source is Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow,
which details the history of our current criminal justice and prison systems
and how they function to continually oppress Black and Brown citizens of this
country.
I think the unfortunate reality is that people like Mr. Carlin
too often are misinformed on what white privilege actually is, and also
severely lack day to day contact with people of color.
Someone who denies white privilege is not necessarily racist,
they are just ignorant to the reality we live in due to the privilege bubble in
which they conveniently exist. So in the spirit of educating over
arguing, I have made a quick reference list for Mr. Carlin and the others in denial
so they too can be better informed and therefore, better equipped to discuss
race in America.
White privilege is being sentenced to rehab for drug use because
you’re “sick” and need to be treated, not incarcerated because you are deemed
inherently dangerous.
White privilege is reminding people to always remember Pearl
Harbor, The Alamo, The Boston Tea Party and both World Wars, but then asking
why Black people can’t seem to put slavery behind them.
White privilege is not having people ask you why you “speak so
well”.
White privilege is no one assumes your success in education or
your career is due to athletic scholarships or affirmative action.
White privilege is sharing an opinion and not having it used as
representative of all the other members of your race
White privilege is not having the justice system routinely
incarcerate the men of your race at astronomically disproportionate rates for
decades and therefore crippling your family structure for generations.
White privilege is having an interaction with law enforcement
and being able to walk away with your life.
White privilege is David Carlin getting to tell an entire group
of people that their centuries long struggle due to systematic social and
political disenfranchisement is essentially their fault and their problem
alone, and certainly not a problem that the greater society should tackle
together.
Unfortunately it is the Carlins, Carsons and Trumps of the world
that perpetuate the ongoing racial bias that divides our nation.
If more time and effort was spent actually engaging people from
the disenfranchised communities and trying to find a common goal of equality
among races and classes, rather than finger pointing and victim blaming, we
might actually have a chance at progressing as a society and as a human
race.
In 2015 it is terrifying to see how little has actually changed
for black and brown people in America. What has changed is how the
injustices are perpetuated and the true intentions camouflaged behind voting
rights restrictions, public policy and policing.
What we cannot allow to go unnoticed is when a person abandons
scholarship for rhetoric and then tries to pass the latter off as the
former. The real issue here is that black and brown people in America are
largely invisible to most whites.
Like Mr. Carlin’s opinion piece, they talk about our lives,
history and culture in a second person narrative, with little or no personal
interactions or observations to validate their viewpoints. Today more
than ever, there needs to be more sound discussions on how to move forward
together; black, brown and white, and less of the guilt ridden, victim blaming
that only serves to further divide us.
Ashley Stokes is a woman of color born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island.
Studied Urban Sociology at The George Washington University, currently living
in Brooklyn and work in New York City in Hospitality Sales & Marketing
