White Privilege

In case you were able to ignore my photo, I am white. This once made me a target of teenagers on a Seattle bus.

I believe I was taking the 48 home from Beacon Hill one weekday afternoon. I was on what I call an "accordion bus," the one that looks like two buses with a stretchy bit in the center allowing it to swivel around corners. I was in the rear bus, and the only other riders back there were some teenage girls behind me.

I was minding my own business when I felt something land on me. It was one of the girls' jackets. I didn't know what to think, so I took it off, set it on the seat beside me, and kept minding my own business. The girls crept up behind me, retrieved the jacket, threw it at me again, and I did the same as before. At this point I felt foolish and annoyed, but far too stubborn to choose the obvious solution: take a seat in the front of the bus, as close to the driver as possible. This pattern continued a few more times. I don't remember how it ended, whether I got off or they got off. I do remember that I was the hot-cheeked target of some choice slurs plus the phrase "white girl." It was humiliating to be 25 or so and picked on by kids, but my AmeriCorps job wasn't too much different.

As I sat there dumbly, it struck me that I had no right to be angry. This was probably the first time that the phrase "white girl" had been used to describe me derogatorily; undoubtably, the girls behind me had been referred to derogatorily as "black girls" their entire lives. I thought of all the bus rides my ancestors had taken; I thought of all the bus rides their ancestors had taken, and what they had endured, never letting flush creep into their cheeks or irritation enter their eyes. My white privilege had protected me for years and years, and this one day wasn't worth complaining about. I was blessed to have this annoyance.

Driving in a car would never have allowed me this little reminder of my undeserved privilege. Thank you, buses, for exposing me to so many things. You are, like public schools, "the great equalizer."