The edification of priviliged white people is not my vocation

This is a declaration of purpose, a clarification of intent, and an admission of disinterest.

This not a manifesto of hatred. It is not an expression of patronization towards my own kind: people of color. It is not a plea for anything, least of all for empathy from the very people whose edification it disavows. It is not whimsy, flimflam, spiteful, childish, angry, evil, reprehensible; nor a dozen other names that it shall probably attract but not deserve.

This essay does have the flaw of being paradoxical: by its very existence — and with the few references at its end — it intends to inform. It is difficult to escape this paradox. I won’t try to.

In the second decade of the 21st century, living in the richest country ever to have existed, I’m constantly surprised to find myself in the company of people who are ignorant of the struggle that people of color, people of non-binary gender, immigrants, poor people, and other under- and un-privileged groups go through on a daily basis. This struggle is continual and unabated. It is caused by transgressions both covert and overt, both subtle and coarse, and often perpetrated by the selfsame people who profess ignorance of their own privilege.

In the last few years, I have experienced several incidents that have convinced me that the job of educating white, upper middle-class people is uninteresting and unsatisfying in the extreme:

1. Summer 2013. A white male colleague refers to the US Civil War casually as the “War of Northern Aggression”. He also questions me if I have any principles (because I have opinions different from his) — while we are driving to have dinner at my brother’s house who had graciously invited him as a guest.

2. Summer 2014. A white male colleague — after several notorious incidents of sexual harassment of women at tech conferences have come to light — publicly asks if we really need to support women-in-technology causes.

3. Fall 2015. I get “feedback” at work that states that I’m “too formal with clients”. Upon inquiry, it turns out it reflects my practice of speaking in full sentences using proper grammar. There is no attempt on the part of those giving this “feedback” to discover that I learned English as a second language as an adult, and have constantly worked on overcoming this handicap. The “feedback” also ignored the large amount of literature that indicates that foreign accents (especially those associated with “brownness” or “blackness”) are looked down upon in the United States, and are equated with ignorance.

4. December 2015. In the aftermath of candidate Trump’s promise of a “Muslim ban”, a white male software engineer asks me via Facebook if I’m “planning on blowing anything up while I’m here [in the US]”. (He knows that I’m a US citizen and that this is my home.)

5. Summer 2016. A white male colleague derides me under the guise of feedback that my posture and voice aren’t impressive enough. He can’t seem to see that he’s 6’4”, with a booming voice, and I’m much shorter.

6. Spring 2017. A white male colleague addresses me curtly in public, and later has the temerity to commend me (in writing) for not losing my temper under his verbal fusillade.

7. Fall 2017. A white male colleague jocularly accuses me of plagiarism in public after I recite an all-too-famous piece of literature.

This is just a sampling of the events that white people of privilege whom I know have perpetrated. In the face of such blissful cluelessness, I admit that any attempts on my part to cure this institutional ignorance are bound to fail. Therefore, I resolve to hereby make no more such attempts.

I have been blessed with the friendship, love and support of many friends and family, for which I’m humbly grateful. I will focus the finite capabilities of my limited life on enriching my relationships with these beloved souls. To the general population of privileged people; especially privileged white people; I have nothing left to say.

References

1. Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
2. What I Told My White Friend When He Asked For My Black Opinion On White Privilege
3. This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is. The last line says something like “Please educate yourself”. The end.