“I Think I had a Day off all My Life”: A Most Profound Statement of White Privilege from a Most Novice Voice
That moment when a student says something to you so much more profound than any scholar you’ve read, heard or learned from, more profound than any activist, and within your soul you remember why you teach about race and the issues that tear this nation apart, and tear you apart, and makes walking into that classroom worth it.
Today that student made it worth it.
As a young Black female professor, working the adjunct options, and holding a degree in Black studies, walking into the classroom on the first day is hit or miss but mostly a miss because in the classroom race always matters. My fellow professors can relate to this, and can relate hopefully to portions of the story I am about to tell. I taught several classes last fall, all were diversity credits but only two contained obvious diversity content in the titles. The student that today shared with me a simple statement that made it worth it; was a student in the class that did not expect the diverse content—it was also the class that by a majority consensus did not want it. The class that saw me and would have happily run the other way. The class with the students that I could not easily read. He too was one of the students I could not assess. And before you know it it is the end of the term and several students want to speak to you one-on-one about everything and nothing, but all together something and only then you realize there might have been greatness. He was one of them. Today I was reassured about his hidden glory. I could see the added proof from the light in his eyes.
After a while, in classes where you seem to be pulling in material that students hate, you just cannot do much more than let go and let flow, you adjust but continue to teach and hope someone gains from it. You read final papers on individually selected topics and find those extra-bright stars that bring on a glow of pride because perhaps you did add to a novice mind. But sometimes, and I hope I’ll find this again, you find a mind that you thought was just as novice, to be secretly powerful.
Powerful, yet he or she is still looking for their voice.
The definition of prejudice is judging without knowledge. It took me a while to realize that this young white male is in a position in which everything expected of him is not to rock the boat but to steer it onward, because everyone’s perception of him is one held without knowledge of who he surely will be. Because it is who he truly is. This perception created stagnation until the end of term; and further, to the day of January 18th, 2016, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration, in Spokane, which would inspire in him a simple and basic thought, yet would expose a truly profound understanding of white privilege for him. Today, on this day off to remember MLK, what he shared with me I will never let fade from memory.
“I think I’ve had a day off all my life.”
Although many organizations ask that MLK Day be a “day on” to complete service, this young man realized from the speeches given and from what he’s gained from a genuine care within himself asking people within his daily life if they are “okay”, that truly, up until this point, he had never been wholly aware of the struggle of people of color. Of course one may read about something, but that alone will not allow them to truly grasp the understanding that their college peers from all over, not just from their home town and your street, have experienced hardships that seem so isolated when seen only on TV. And yet, they still got up today and walked to class, participated, and went through the world screaming inside about something so many people do not know about, or if they do, do not care. This young man cared, which opened a desire in him, hopefully, to always welcome more information about something that’s been hidden from him throughout his educational and communal worlds.
As someone he will seek knowledge from, that moment of his privilege recognition was bitter sweet, because he can move forward on his own and share the ways in which his eyes opened with those in his life currently, who may not be maintained, and share it with those in his future as well. It’s that form of mentorship, that is a part of activism that is required in Black Studies that I strive to maintain. “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?’” Dr. King I believe I am putting light into the eyes of few, who can perhaps do the same for a few others. Because he recognized his days off and maybe through him others will too.
Perhaps one may think his statement is not the most profound. But one must realize, that this student was in the class that never broke down the difference between, prejudice, discrimination and racism. There was not even a mention of white privilege. I do not know if this young man will realize that, as a white male in America, he has taken the greatest hurdle toward understanding his racial privilege. Perhaps understanding the concepts, that as a professor we start out with, will be something of a task, but that task will be so much easier now, because by acknowledging his privileges, he’ll be able to further learn and accept what those privileges mean. That barrier is an internal and external beating.
“What are you complaining about? We have to run the same distance as you, so it’s equal!” – @EmanuG
LaToya Brackett resides in Spokane, WA. Looking forward to the rest of 2016, she expects that even through continued hurdles, this year she might just continue to bring the light to the eyes of a few more. The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, by Sonia Nieto was the text used by Dr. Denise Troutman at Michigan State University during LaToya's Black Studies doctoral training to guide her and her colleagues in teaching. The text left an impact.