Yes, you can choose and I can too, it's a privilege...

I read and re-read, and re-read again, the first one of McIntosh’s 26 privileges: “I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.” The more I thought about how to actually interpret such a passage, the more I accepted my disagreement with it being an unacknowledged white privilege. The truth is, this is a non-specific facet of human choice, not one of defined racial separation. I am of the mindset that like-minded people end up in like-minded places, regardless of race, so of course it is possible to arrange to be in the company of people just like you, a monoculture, if you will. I chose the first item on McIntosh’s list because it was the one I found to be the least in line with my perception and ownership of the white privilege that I hold. I was more surprised that It was so hard for me to comprehend than I was of its existence. 

I live in a community that has, by a slight margin demographically, more black residents than white and I live on the ‘South Side’ of town…this makes me a residential minority and if I want to find myself in the company of folks of the same race, I have to make a choice to leave my side of Main Street or await league night at the billiards hall which is a simple 86 step walk from my front door. Through those doors one will easily find a slightly boring, homogenous culture of white men and women, not gathered because of their race, but because of their chosen hobby.

And, on the golf course, it’s similar…a predominantly white sport - so again, I am not arranging to be amongst people of my same race – it is just coincidence. I ponder.  Is the racial make-up of a sport truly pre-determined by accessibility and money? Do Black teenagers choose basketball because of its predominance to their race?

All of this leads me to more questions:  

Don’t we all have the ability to choose the people we gather with?

What percentage of people choose to spend time/gather with people of different races?

And…most important:

What am I missing in McIntosh’s number one item on the privilege list?

Sure, I buy into the idea that racism is a systemic, societal flaw in our culture; however, I don’t buy into not having a choice to do something about it at an individual level. I know people tend to fear what they do not know or understand, and I get that…it is what keeps people racially divided, at least physically, in my opinion. I wonder is what would happen if we were all sight blind and we couldn’t see color, would we be in the presence of people who don’t share our race?  Would we feel less afraid? Would we see things differently? I know, for me, I do not want to be in a place where it’s one boring monoculture after another but I do want to know why race even came into play in that number one question. In my search to better understand, I found a great article on DiscoverMagazine.com:

            “Race is a highly flexible way in which societies lump people into groups based on appearance that is assumed to be indicative of deeper biological or cultural connections. As a cultural category, the definitions and descriptions of races vary. “Color” lines based on skin tone can shift, which makes sense, but the categories are problematic for making any sort of scientific pronouncements.” (Goodman, Discover Magazine)

The above article confirms to me, gender as a societal construct and something we can choose to address differently, just as we can choose to be in the presence of people of the same race or not. I have a lot to learn and this just scratched the surface of my curiosity…and predetermined racial naivety.