Freddie Gray is dead<\/a> because he \u201cmade eye contact\u201d with a police officer.<\/p>\nThis is what white privilege looks like.<\/p>\n
That term \u2014 \u201cwhite privilege\u201d \u2014 still confuses many people, though, provoking a defensive response on their part. And this stark example of white privilege in action shows why they\u2019re confused. After all, the \u201cprivilege\u201d in question here is more of a basic human right \u2014 the right not to be summarily executed for the misdemeanor of \u201cdisorderly intoxication\u201d or even for the alleged felony of \u201ccorruption by threat to a public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not getting gunned down by police doesn\u2019t really seem like a \u201cprivilege\u201d \u2014 more like a bare-minimum starting point for basic freedom and dignity. And that\u2019s true of a great deal of what we mean when we talk about \u201cwhite privilege.\u201d It refers to the basic, bare-minimum rights of freedom and dignity that everyone ought<\/em> to be able to take for granted.<\/p>\nThe point of discussing \u201cwhite privilege\u201d is not to say that white people should be denied such basic, bare-minimum rights. The point is to say that everyone else<\/em> should enjoy them too.<\/p>\nThe peaceful arrest of someone like Michael Holman highlights the inconsistency of American law enforcement \u2014 it\u2019s inequality, unfairness and injustice. But it is only the crudest, most curdled imagination that thinks the only way to correct such inconsistency would be for police to gun down people like Holman the way they gun down unarmed black citizens every day. That would make the system consistent and equal, but still unfair and unjust.<\/p>\n
No, the point is not that Holman should have been been shot to death like Amadou Diallo was, but rather that Diallo should still be alive<\/em> like Holman is. The point is not that the white privilege of basic dignity and basic rights should be taken away from white people, but that it should not be a privilege restricted only to white people \u2014 it should be extended to everyone<\/em>.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s not only a matter of basic justice for everyone else, it\u2019s also a matter of basic justice for white people themselves. Because until that happens, the basic human rights that white Americans can mostly take for granted are not rights at all \u2014 merely privileges. And the difference between rights and privileges is that privileges can be rescinded at any time, for any reason, by those in power.<\/p>\n
As for poor Michael Holman, here\u2019s hoping his public defender is able to persuade the court to direct him toward the kind of help it seems he needs. Maybe that off-duty deputy and his fellow parishioners at First Assembly of God can help him to find a bit of the grace that Kris Kristofferson hints at here:<\/p>\n
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