Thoughts on Tim Wise: Part 1, Defining White Privilege

Today I went to the faculty luncheon with Tim Wise. Wise speaks in Moody Coliseum this evening. In the next few posts I'll share some thoughts about Wise's presentations.

To start, what is "white privilege"? Wise defines it as a kind of oblivion, a taken-for-grantedness. To illustrate this notion Wise asked us to think about how we entered the building for lunch. For most of us able bodied persons, we didn't have to spend any time at all on how we would approach or enter the building. As able bodied people we can take entering buildings for granted.

But if were were handicapped in various ways we couldn't take entering a building for granted. We would need to think about parking and where handicap accessible entrances might be located (or if these entrances exist at all for this particular building). In short, for handicapped persons entering buildings cannot be taken for granted. A handicapped person has to think about how he or she is going to negotiate building entrances.

In short, privileged groups can take certain things for granted. Less privileged groups cannot take these things for granted. A woman working in a man's world has to negotiate aspects of male privilege. She has to think about things and negotiate things that men just don't notice or pay attention to. Handicapped persons have to think about things and negotiate things that able bodied persons don't notice or pay attention to. And people of color have to think about things and negotiate things that white people don't notice or pay attention to. In this sense, privilege is a kind of cognitive and behavioral freedom that is a luxury less privileged groups do not have.