(Not The Bee) Last week a video started circulating of a subway encounter where a young white couple and their child were verbally assaulted by a racist black man. The clip quickly went viral.
Congratulations Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi! You did it!✊🏿◼️ pic.twitter.com/TO2KkmvCAt
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) March 21, 2023
Given how many people from so many different races, backgrounds, and perspectives saw it, about everything that could be said about the scene has been said. It’s shameful, it’s disgraceful, and gross. That any human being could feel entitled to treat other human beings in such a manner, particularly in the presence of a child is a sad commentary on their own moral character.
But beyond that, my belief is that there are 3 primary lessons we can take from this one anecdotal piece of evidence, as we evaluate it in the larger cultural context of race relations.
First, this video provides further evidence that the premise of a prevailing white privilege in society is at best flawed, and at worst is intentionally misread and exploited. There are a multitude of attributes and circumstances that provide cultural advantages to individuals, by far the most significant of which is being raised in a two-parent home. Those who ignore such characteristics and skip directly to “white skin” as their primary predictor of success are telling on themselves.
But dig deeper into this idea of privilege for a moment.
Is it not an indication of privilege when someone feels comfortable berating and disparaging complete strangers in a public place without any apparent fear of reprisal or consequence? What is it if it is not privilege that permits certain individuals to get away with uttering such flagrantly racist bile while being recorded and know through it all that there will be no price to pay?
Though it is a tired game, reverse the roles in this sorry spectacle. Put a young black family in those subway seats and a white man standing and shouting racial insults, gorilla labels, and threatening language at them. Ask yourself what the reaction would have been socially, culturally, and even legally. Ask yourself if the offending white man would have been publicly identified, shamed, canceled, and punished by now. Then ask yourself what that says about privilege and the current balance of social power in America.
