Read This List of White Parenting Privileges
There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about privileges – what they are, who has them, and who is willing to admit and acknowledge that they have them. White parents should be at the top of this list because, as Jen Lumanlan of Your Parenting Mojo points out , our privileges are enormous, and they are deep:
The insidiousness of privileges is that they induce us to ignore them. The easiest and most convenient way to do this is to keep your eyes open and keep doing what we do (color blind; being nice to black people; having a varied library).
The first thing we need to do is acknowledge our white parenting privilege.
Luhmanlan has compiled a list of 57 privileges that white parents have , and the list is worth reading. You will no doubt recognize privileges here that you have never considered privileges before. Here are some examples to get you started:
- When white parents bring our toddler to the store with their snacks and toys, without worrying that store employees think we stole them, we have a privilege.
- When our child actually steals from the store, and we can follow popular parenting advice to return the product with an apology, instead of having witnesses call the police who then threaten to shoot us, we have the privilege.
- When white parents can turn on the TV to entertain our child and know they won’t even have to look for shows with characters that look like them, we have a privilege.
- When white parents don’t have to worry about our child being one of the few children of their race, if we choose a “good” school, we have a privilege.
- When white parents can count on finger zero how many times our child has heard negative reviews about their race, we are privileged.
- When our primary concern with school closings is how to keep our child entertained all day while we work, rather than where the child will now have breakfast and lunch, we have a privilege.
- When our child never has to respond to the statement “You only went to this school / college because of your race,” we have a privilege.
- When we do free-range parenting and let our child go to school alone or play outside without supervision, we are unlikely to face serious consequences such as arrest and removal of the child from our care. We have a privilege.
- When our child is SIX times less likely to have or have an imprisoned parent, we have a privilege.
Okay, now read the entire list .