Despising an Identity They Taught Me to Claim: Exploring a Dilemma of White Privilege Awareness

WHITENESS: FEMINIST PHILOSOPHICAL NARRATIVES, eds., Chris J. Cuomo & Kim Q. Hall, Totowa, N.J, 1999

12 Pages Posted: 29 Jan 2009

See all articles by Alison Bailey

Alison Bailey

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Illinois State Universtiy, College of Arts and Sciences - Philosophy Department

Date Written: 1999

Abstract

This essay is a personal philosophical reflection on particular dilemma privilege-cognizant white feminists face in thinking through how to use privilege in liberatory ways. Privilege takes on a new dimension for whites who resist common defensive or guilt-ridden responses to privilege and struggle to understand the connections between ill-gotten advantages and the genuine injustices that deny humanity to peoples of color. The temptation to despise whiteness and its accompanying privilege is a common response to white privilege awareness and it is this initial frustration with the perceived inescapability of white privilege that I explore here.

What I call the "dilemma of white privilege awareness," leaves privilege-cognizant whites trapped in the awkward position of knowing that privilege is at once impossible to dispose of, and impossible to use without perpetuating those systems of domination I wish to demolish. The dilemma works like this. On the one hand, if my racial appearance and mannerisms act as a magnet for special treatment, then I cannot simply arrange my life so as not to have benefits and immunities extended to me. There appears to be no way to divest myself completely of race privilege. On the other hand, if the focus on privilege divestment is misguided, then perhaps whites ought to find responsible ways of using race privilege that do not perpetuate structural inequalities (e.g. assisting persons of color in surmounting everyday obstacles). Yet, if the power accorded to privilege is made possible by structural inequalities, then the very act of using privilege will automatically reinforce those structural inequalities. If the claims made on both sides of the dilemma are true, then I am trapped: I can neither divest myself of unearned privileges nor can I use them without reinforcing the systems I wish to demolish.

I carefully unpack each side of the dilemma marking detours, diversions, and natural sticking points (e.g. cultural impersonation, retreats to white ethnicity, and the temptation to shift discussions away from race to other oppressions) that prevent me engaging critically in discussions of racism. I suggest two possible solutions to the dilemma: conceptual and pragmatic.

The conceptual solution argues that the dilemma of privilege awareness is a false dilemma that arises from an essentialist view of race. As a way of escaping the dilemma, I suggest a performative view of race based on Judith Butler and Marilyn Frye's accounts of whitely 'performatives.' I argue that thinking about what it means to be white (or any race) in terms of as performatives, attitudes, and behaviors, rather that in terms of essentialist classifications untangles the helplessness associated with the perceived inescapability of whiteness that generates the dilemma. This conceptual solution, however, does little to move us toward questions of responsibility.

A more pragmatic solution requires accepting as true the premise that privilege use does reinscribe the value of privilege. And, at the same time acknowledging that refusal to use privilege for this reason amounts to a waste of resources.

Yet the idea that white privilege is poisonous or problematic is, no doubt, laughable from the standpoint of peoples of color. Thus, I conclude by rejecting the dilemma on the grounds that it is a self-centered response to racism. The best response to white privilege awareness should not be, "how can I find a way out of this dilemma?" Rather it should be "how do I begin thinking of privilege as a resource for undoing institutional racism?"

Politically useful explorations of privilege must involve more than orchestrating conceptual end runs around racial essentialism for the sake of easing philosophical discomfort. Framing questions of privilege in terms of a dilemma that needs to be escaped is self-regarding: in the end it really amounts to is a more sophisticated way of wrestling with white guilt. It does not allow me to move in the direction of coalition building and creative political action. Privilege cannot be abandon completely. What must be given up, then, is not privilege per se, but harmful uses of privilege. If there is one lesson we carry away from the dilemma, it is that privilege is impossible to shake, and that using privilege reinscribes it. Rather than frustrating us, this phenomenon should alert us to the strengths of privilege as a resource. To use privilege as a resource for anti-racist activities is to give up its abusive power.

Keywords: Race Traitor, White Privilege Awareness, Anti-Racist Identities, Whiteness Studies, Privilege

Suggested Citation

Bailey, Alison and Bailey, Alison, Despising an Identity They Taught Me to Claim: Exploring a Dilemma of White Privilege Awareness (1999). WHITENESS: FEMINIST PHILOSOPHICAL NARRATIVES, eds., Chris J. Cuomo & Kim Q. Hall, Totowa, N.J, 1999, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1334774

Alison Bailey (Contact Author)

Illinois State Universtiy, College of Arts and Sciences - Philosophy Department ( email )

Normal, IL
United States
309 438 5617 (Phone)
309 438 5104 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.womensandgenderstudies.ilstu.edu

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies ( email )

Normal, IL
United States
309 438 5617 (Phone)
309 438 5104 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.womensandgenderstudies.ilstu.edu

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