If people don’t believe that privilege exists, can they be effective allies in building the “more perfect union” President Obama mentioned in his Friday speech about race, racism, and Trayvon Martin? When you do have a conversation about making America a better place for people of color without acknowledging white privilege, things can get testy, as they did on Sunday’s Melissa Harris-Perry.
Conservative radio commentator David Webb—despite insisting that calling something “normal” does not mean that anyone without that characteristic, be it skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability, is “abnormal”—got into a heated exchange with anti-racist activist Tim Wise over what responsibility white people have when it comes to ending racism.
“Most of us have” privilege, Wise said, “it’s about how we use it.”
Meredith Clark
Meredith Clark is a freelance writer and editor. She was previously a senior news producer for "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," a reporter with MSNBC.com, the digital politics and culture editor at Glamour and a senior news and politics editor at Refinery29. She has written for Vulture, Rolling Stone, Self, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast and Bustle. Recommended
