race: the power of an illusion

After attending the event Race: The Power of an Illusion this past Tuesday evening in Knott Hall, I was forced to reevaluate many of my previous notions regarding race. Until then, I had considered myself to be fairly conscious of the various social and racial hierarchies existing within the community. But, as I sat there listening to the modern theories concerning race, I began to realize that my view of racism was entirely one-sided.

As a white person, I have consistently been taught to believe that racism is something that puts others at a disadvantage, not something that puts me at an advantage. Not once, in all my years of education, have I ever considered myself to be an oppressor, an unfairly advantaged person, or a participant in a damaged culture. Rather, I have always viewed myself from the perspective of an individual whose moral state is entirely dependent on free will. However, after being prompted to consider the ways in which social and racial hierarchies are intertwined and reflect on the numerous times I have benefited from racial stereotyping, it becomes relatively simple to see myself as self-centered and oppressive.

I have been so entirely “untutored” as to the effects of “white privilege” that I am often unaware of their existence. I have grown accustomed to living in a world where I am justly represented within the political realm and can obtain medical help without difficulty. I take refuge in the fact that I am able to succeed corporately without the backlash of affirmative action and voice my opinions without being viewed as a traitor to American society. And, in accepting these “privileges”, what I do not realize, or in some cases choose to remain oblivious to, is that “privilege” is not simply something that is earned or conferred by luck or birth. In a racial sense, “privilege” is highlighted simply in the ways in which conditions, like those above, systematically favor one race over another. Thus, whereas whites have come to accept such “privileges” as inherent rights, it is often difficult to assess whether we are or are not being oppressive.

Consequently, because whites are often taught to see their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, can any act of volunteerism or comunity service, essentially, be seen as an effort to make others more like us? Are our efforts thus contradictory? Are they misguided? Is “white privilege” as misconstrued as “black oppression”? Surprisingly, I was leaving the auditorium with more questions about race than when I walked in. Although I had been under the impression that the lecture would help me to further understand race by focusing entirely on racial issues within Baltimore, I feel that it only complicated things more. While I did learn a significant amount about the city and its struggles with race, I feel that the lecture was not really about Baltimore at all. Instead, I feel as if it were devised as a mechanism by which to extract students from what has become known as the Loyola bubble. Rather than overwhelming us with statistics concerning poverty and literacy within the city and incorporating them with themes of racial injustice, the presentation attempted to broaden our understanding of race by catering to individual perspective.