Nearly a decade ago, the article ‘Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person’ appeared on Huffington Post. It dropped to much acclaim, especially among people dissatisfied by the classic Peggy McIntosh article ‘White Privilege and Male Privilege’.
The basic thought is simple enough: McIntosh comes up with lots of great examples of white privilege. But many of her examples speak more to class than race. Especially given her status as a professional at an elite private university (Wellesley) and the kinds of people she interacts with at that institution.
To the broke white person, such an article amounts to a farce. Who cares about finding a publisher (literally one of McIntosh’s examples) when you can’t even pay rent?
But let’s take a closer look.
Why Do You Want to Explain Privilege to a Broke White Person?
As for the theory behind the article on explaining white privilege to a broke white person? It’s basically sound. Yes, socioeconomic status (not ‘class‘ – as the author puts it) mediates as a factor. Yes, many broke white people still benefit from privileges around things like citizenship and sexual orientation. And yes, all white people – even broke ones – benefit (at least in the short term) from the tokens of respect society shows to white people in certain social contexts.
So, sure, you can tell a story about white privilege that adequately addresses the concerns of most broke white people. At least one that nails the theory part of it.
But should you?
Why are you trying to explain privilege to a broke white person in the first place? Is it to show them how smart you are? To separate yourself from ‘their kind of white person’? To show how much terminology and minutiae you understand? Are you on some kind of ‘progressive’ moral crusade? What’s your angle here, anyway? What are you and the broke white person going to mutually gain for your efforts? Will you organize with the person? Will you invite them to join the DSA?
Again, I ask, should you? You should examine your own motives and what you’re trying to accomplish before trying to do it.
Privilege Again
OK, so suppose you decide you’d like to engage with the broke white person, even after examining your motives and goals. I think there’s a much better way to do it. And it doesn’t involve talking about privilege at all. Even when you get everything right about privilege – when you capture all the nuance – you’re still likely to offend the person and get nowhere.
Instead, I’d recommend you frame these conversations in terms of cross-racial (and other cross-identity) solidarity. And talk about how society uses small tokens of respect and other mere crumbs to keep the broke white person from forming alliances with working-class non-whites. Especially with black Americans.
If you really want to use ‘white privilege’ language, I’ve written separately about how to think about white privilege along these lines. But that’s a story for another post – linked in the previous sentence.
