Privilege and Protest

A week or so ago Remigious posted in this space. Read it here if you haven't already, it raises good points about privilege and intersectionality, particularly as they relate to protest, that I want to go into more today.

I had a brief argument with someone on Facebook a couple of days ago about essentially white responsibility for slavery, I did not explain myself well in the argument and rapidly lost interest, but I was trying to say that all of us, and by us I mean white folk, who live in the USA today, share a portion of responsibility for the injustices committed during that period, and really those that followed as well. Now I am not saying that slavery was my fault, or yours, many of us are descended from immigrants who reached the country much more recently than that, and even if we can trace our lineage back that far, obviously we can't be blamed for slavery, having(hopefully) not owned any slaves of our own.

But we do benefit from a society built on prejudice and the suffering of people who look different, we largely don't have to fear being shot by cops during routine traffic stops, hell we mostly don't have to fear routine traffic stops! We get preferential treatment when it comes to hiring and raises, and so on and so forth even unto infinity. Now this doesn't make us responsible for slavery, but it does put us in a position of responsibility for everything else happening today. Because we are privileged, we have an obligation to lift others up. "To whom much is given, much is required" is one of the biblical quotes I am rather fond of, but if you want to nerd it up a bit you can quote the gospel of Uncle Ben "With great power comes great responsibility".

How does this relate to protest? Well, as Remigious put it "White Women Voted For Trump", white men did too of course and in large part, blame for his presidency can be put directly at the feet of our demographic. Now I didn't vote for him, and I suspect you reading this didn't either, but that doesn't change the results, and the results are that minorities are going to suffer a great deal more than whitey during the next few years, this means that when a protest sign like the above is seen, our first response can't be based on "mah feels!" Our feelings really don't matter, and honestly aren't even the point anyway.

White people are members of the oppressors, we are less vulnerable to retaliation and more insulated from the negative consequences of racism and so on, while it is good and right that we take part in protest, indeed mandatory, our role should not be as leaders because in many ways, it isn't about us. The cause of equality helps everybody, but the damage inequality does falls disproportionately on minority populations, by making the world better for them, we make it better for us, and conversely if we make the protest about us, then it isn't going to get better for them, which means in the long run, progressive ideas aren't going to gain ground.

Any protest is worth going to, but to truly support the cause of equality, white people need to show support for organizations that are specifically non white, such as Black Lives Matter. This doesn't mean we take the lead and set the course of dialogue, but it does mean we should be actively supporting those who are doing so. Our role is to provide evidence to the bigots and to those who just aren't paying attention that it isn't just one group being "whiners", that the cause crosses racial boundaries and that it is something worth caring about. Our other job is being able to protest and take active action with less fear of retaliation, it is a fact that a mostly black protest is going to be cracked down on much harder than a mostly white one, the more of us who are there, the more we insulate the vulnerable population.

The point to keep in mind, is that it isn't about you, I mean it is, because this affects everybody, but it isn't, because you are privileged to be insulated from many of the consequences of protest and revolution.

If we go full fascism, to the point of camps and forced deportation, I and the majority of you reading this will likely be safe, all we would really have to do is deny that we support the "wrong" type and we can survive for a time, but someone with brown skin doesn't get that option, they will always be the wrong kind no matter what they say. This is an extreme example used for the purpose of making a point, but I hope you get my meaning.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are levels of privilege, I am a straight white male, I get the most, this means that in protests that focus on women, LGBTQ, minority, or other vulnerable population's issues my voice is not the one that should be setting the tone. The writing above can be easily changed, just remove references of race and replace it with whatever other group is being effected. Yes, this means that straight white men should rarely if ever be the ones in charge of setting protest priorities, no that doesn't mean we have no part to play as I already mentioned. But we set the tone pretty much in every other aspect of society, that is kind of the point of these groups fighting for equality anyway, so we can let them decide what they are fighting for, and the words they will use to do it.