The idea of White privilege is often danced around in conversations about social justice. At the National Conference on Diversity, Race and Learning on the campus of The Ohio State University this week, scholars discussed the implications of said privilege and how it impacts the campus environment.
Debby Irving, a racial justice educator and author of Waking Up White, said she did not realize the ways in which her White privilege narrowed her perspective of the world and the way things work.
For those Whites who want to think of themselves as more liberal, not racist, Irving said, there is often a difficult balance between wanting to “feel generous and feel good and [do things that] go to the need to ‘fix’” the problems these students were facing and not appearing to see herself as better than those who needed the “fixing.”
“There was a dissonance between saying I was colorblind and not wanting to look like I saw myself as superior,” said Irving. For her, this would manifest itself as having lower standards for Black students or dancing around issues in parent-teacher conferences with Black families.
Debby Irving, a racial justice educator and author, said that those in power need to be willing to engage in dialogue with those who are not in power about ways to better accommodate them.
“The world is normalized to be White,” Torres said. “Most of the policymakers, most of the faculty, because most of the great majority of them are White, they don’t think about some of those issues and challenges that people of color go through.”
Torres went on to say that workshops and symposia will not likely truly unpack the complications of privilege for those who don’t have the lived experiences of being on the short end of the privilege.
