The Privilege
I wonder if I just experienced white privilege...or maybe class privilege. Hard to tell without any control examples.
I got a parking ticket at a meter last Tuesday. I will leave alone that the time on the ticket was only 3 minutes before the time after I read the ticket, got in the car, called my wift to complain, and finally looked at the clock. Also, could see my car for a good three minutes on my walk before I actually reached it and never saw a parking person. I am basically saying the person saw that the time was going to be up and lied about the time.
ANYWAY...I meant to pay it personally downtown since I am working on a consulting job right up the street for a bit. I forgot and the 7 day deadline before it doubles passed. I called late last night and the woman told me probably out of luck, but ask the cashier. So I went in person and gave my white lie (no pun intended) about not coming into work earlier in the week because of the weather (had snow and ice storm) and leaving the ticket in my desk at work since I meant to pay it in person. The two men gave me a polite sorry, "the only person who can reduce teh doubled fine is a judge. So I took out my money to pay it and the dude says that will be $25...the original fine! Probably looking a bit perplexed because he had just told me no can do, I said "really?" The other guy gave me a wink and a wave of the hand. I thanked them profusely and left...feeling kinda dirty and guilty. Had to ask myself the question, "would they have accommodated the black guy behind me in line the same lenience given the same story?" What do you think? Do you have examples of "white privilege" or other types of privilege?
posted by ajparrillo at 11:13 AM
2 Comments:
I wrote something like that before on here.
Where the middle aged black dude at the bursar's office loudly told me in the hallway there was nothing he could do for me, I would need to pay the ful ammount. Then when we got back to his office, he quietly told me that I wouldn't have to pay anything if I didn't want to. But that was probably a cultural privilege, because he was declaring that earlier statement to a group of foreign students, and we were the TRU AMERCANS bonding together.
Other than that, remember that time in high school when the undercover cops swooped into a group of us and arrested Donelle and Omar after a basketball game? Were you there? It was crazy and unsettling. I'll tell the full story if anyone wants to hear it.
I think I remember that and you should tell the story. Playing paintball with Troy, Tracy, Mike Holt, Pennettis, and Randy has exposed me to many class issues. As much as hooligans as some were, later downright criminals, they tell stories about how Springfield Twnshp cops would pick them up and take them to a field and rough them up. The scary thing is that the story is very matter of fact like it is just something all people go through. Randy told a story about how a teacher (I cannot remember which he said it was) chased him out the last day of classes in like fourth grade telling him that he would never amount to anything and so on. No matter how bad a kid is at that age, that is just rediculous. Finally, I got another side of a story about Troy from my cousins husband who was in David Ohl's apt when Troy walked in and beat the F out of him. My cousin-in-law was brought in by Springfield Twnshp police and was pressured to wear a wire and to go around to parties to gather info. He wanted nothing to do with it because he was not friends with D. Ohl and did not want any trouble. A "Srgnt Root" explained how he wanted to bring the Evenson's down because one impregnated his daughter. Funny, because it turns out she was impregnated by on of the Hills. In order to futher pressure this guy into cooperating, they showed them some of the survailance they had of parties. Evidentially they had hidden cameras at these places where he saw such people on tape as Adrian and other. Pretty disconcerting that a police officer with a personal vendetta will expend taxpayers resources to bring petty teenage criminals to justice.
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