by Tim Wise
As the nation weeps for the victims of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday, one searches for lessons amid the carnage, and finds few. That violence is unacceptable stands out as one, sure. That hatred — for humanity, for life, or whatever else might have animated the bomber or bombers — is never the source of constructive human action seems like a reasonably close second.
But I dare say there is more; a much less obvious and far more uncomfortable lesson, which many are loathe to learn, but which an event such as this makes readily apparent, and which we must acknowledge, no matter how painful.
It is a lesson about race, about whiteness, and specifically, about white privilege.
I know you don’t want to hear it. But I don’t much care. So here goes.
White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in white folks generally being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI.
White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for whites to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening, or threatened with deportation.
White privilege is knowing that if the bomber turns out to be white, he or she will be viewed as an exception to an otherwise non-white rule, an aberration, an anomaly, and that he or she will be able to join the ranks of pantheon of white people who engage in (or have plotted) politically motivated violence meant to terrorize — and specifically to kill — but whose actions result in the assumption of absolutelynothing about white people generally, or white Christians in particular.
Among these: Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols y Ted Kaczynski y Eric Rudolph y Joe Stack y George Metesky y Byron De La Beckwith y Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton and Herman Frank Cash and Robert Chambliss y James von Brunn y Lawrence Michael Lombardi y Robert Mathews y David Lane y Chevie Kehoe y Michael F. Griffin y Paul Hill y John Salvi y Justin Carl Moose y Bruce and Joshua Turnidge y James Kopp y Luke Helder y James David Adkisson y Scott Roeder y Shelley Shannon y Dennis Mahon y Wade Michael Page y Jeffery Harbin y Byron Williams y Charles Ray Polk and Willie Ray Lampley and Cecilia Lampley and John Dare Baird and Joseph Martin Bailie y Ray Hamblin and Robert Edward Starr III and William James McCranie Jr. and John Pitner and Charles Barbee and Robert Berry and Jay Merrell y Brendon Blasz and Carl Jay Waskom Jr. and Shawn and Catherine Adams and Edward Taylor Jr. and Todd Vanbiber and William Robert Goehler and James Cleaver and Jack Dowell and Bradley Playford Glover y Ken Carter and Randy Graham and Bradford Metcalf y Chris Scott Gilliam and Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder and Buford Furrow and Benjamin Smith and Donald Rudolph and Kevin Ray Patterson and Charles Dennis Kiles and Donald Beauregard and Troy Diver y Mark Wayne McCool y Leo Felton and Erica Chase and Clayton Lee Wagner y Michael Edward Smith and David Burgert and Robert Barefoot Jr. y Sean Gillespie and Ivan Duane Braden and Kevin Harpham y William Krar and Judith Bruey and Edward Feltus y Raymond Kirk Dillard and Adam Lynn Cunningham and Bonnell Hughes and Randall Garrett Cole and James Ray McElroy y Michael Gorbey y Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman y Frederick Thomas y Paul Ross Evans y Matt Goldsby and Jimmy Simmons and Kathy Simmons and Kaye Wiggins y Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe y David McMenemy y Bobby Joe Rogers y Francis Grady y Cody Seth Crawford y Ralph Lang y Demetrius Van Crocker y Floyd Raymond Looker y Derek Mathew Shrout y Randolph Linn.
Ya know, just to name a few.
And white privilege is being able to know nothing about the crimes committed by most of the terrorists listed above — indeed, never to have so much as heard most of their names — let alone to make assumptions about the role that their racial or ethnic identity may have played in their crimes.
White privilege is knowing that if the Boston bomber turns out to be white, we will not be asked to denounce him or her, so as to prove our own loyalties to the common national good. It is knowing that the next time a cop sees one of us standing on the sidewalk cheering on runners in a marathon, that cop will say exactly nothing to us as a result.
White privilege is knowing that if you are a white student from Nebraska — as opposed to, say, a student from Saudi Arabia — that no one, and I mean no one would think it important to detain and question you in the wake of a bombing such as the one at the Boston Marathon.
And white privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Belfast. And if he’s an Italian American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.
In short, white privilege is the thing that allows you (if you’re white) — and me — to view tragic events like this as merely horrific, and from the perspective of pure and innocent victims, rather than having to wonder, and to look over one’s shoulder, and to ask even if only in hushed tones, whether those we pass on the street might think that somehow we were involved.
It is the source of our unearned innocence and the cause of others’ unjustified oppression.
That is all. And it matters.