Gift as Responsibility: White Privilege

This post is about white privilege, on a blog devoted to renewal of college mathematics. What are the connections? Can we save college mathematics without understanding the role of white privilege in higher education? Do you accept the existence of ‘privilege’?

I think about white privilege, and the role it played in my own journey, on a regular basis. The motivation to make this post comes from conversations we are having in my department about addressing the equity gap — the differential outcomes for specific ‘ethnic’ groups, specifically black students. This past week, a colleague suggested that she could begin to build better relationships by requiring every student in the class to speak with her outside of class. Like me, this instructor is white.

Students with a privileged condition will have a reasonable choice about doing something like talking with the instructor outside of class. Students with low privilege, no privilege, or negative privilege will face some challenges in complying with this directive from a white instructor. You might be thinking that all students would try to avoid talking with a math instructor privately, and there is some truth in the statement. However, those of us who have benefited from white privilege often fail to understand the range of forces involved in low- and high-privilege situations.

If you are white in America, you may in fact wonder if privilege exists … perhaps people with status and power have worked harder and were smarter. Here is a one question ‘test’ to see if you have privilege relative to ethnicity and race:

Do you have the choice to control how much your identity is based on ethnicity and/or race?

Some people I know are white, and some of them will say that they don’t see themselves as white; that is a clear statement of white privilege. I’ve yet to hear a black person say that they don’t see themselves as black; sure, some “black folks” identify very strongly as black, and others less so. The point is … in America, being black means that you don’t control your basic identity.

Okay, so accept (perhaps for the sake of argument) that white privilege exists. Does it have anything to do with higher education, in mathematics specifically?

To answer that question, just think about the most common observations about ‘struggling’ students:

Passive
Not prepared
Lack of academic facility

How do students arrive in our classes ready to be active, to be prepared, and to have academic facility? They had a combination of ‘family’ and K-12 education that provided a basis for functioning in a mathematics classroom. A student with white privilege is more likely to have had parents with the time and inclination to actively support learning … and support risk taking. A student with white privilege is more likely to have attended a K-12 system with opportunities for higher levels of learning, as well as better preparation for college.

White privilege is a gift that I received at birth, paid for by predecessors choices; much of my white privilege is the direct and indirect result of inhuman treatment … racism … and wealth accumulation. I am not responsible for the gift, but I am responsible for being able to use that gift. I can go through life pushing to higher levels of power and wealth, or I can use the gift as little as possible. I can’t avoid using the gift — when I stand in front of a class, speak to my administrators, or even post on this blog, the gift of white privilege is there giving me an advantage. Every time I use this gift of white privilege, somebody else is prevented from building a privileged condition for themselves.

I can’t speak for other ‘white folk’, just like a black colleague not being able to speak for ‘black folk’.

However, I intend to continue using this gift of privilege as little as possible. I seek to lift up those who did not get this same gift, even when it means some loss to me. I don’t claim to be very good at that; in fact, I would judge that I have missed far too many opportunities to increase the privileged condition for those around me … and those in my classrooms specifically.

In my classrooms, I do not need to do much to get higher status. Therefore, I can spend more of my energy — especially in the first week of class — on creating an inclusive classroom. An inclusive classroom is “privilege proof”, meaning that the benefits (learning) have no connection to the level of privilege for any student. Throughout the semester, I need to continue to include and build up all students; students who lack privilege previously should get more of my support.

If that last part bothers you (about differential support), just think about this: Students with the most ‘white privilege’ do not need us for much of anything. They will be successful learning mathematics without us, or even in spite of us. An unskilled or uncaring instructor will harm low privilege students, but will have almost no impact on students like me — because of the white privilege.

White privilege is especially important in school settings. In higher education, we once had a system which only served those with privilege … almost universally white males in this country. In my view, if you are not thinking about white privilege, you can only be an effective educator if all your students are ‘just like you’ (in terms of race/ethnicity).

White privilege provides a systemic advantage to a specific group of people. If you are a member of this group, I think the gift of white privilege imposes upon you a responsibility to consciously minimize the use of the gift of privilege. The use of privilege will reinforce the lack of privilege for another group — every time privilege is used.

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