This is going to be a rant. Well, it is going to be several. I want to start with the idea of privilege. I’m not even talking about racial privilege or economic privilege yet. No, this is positional. I just had a rather stupid and pointed text exchange with my son’s high school head coach, because –late yesterday–the ‘team mom’ (I hate that damn term) sent out a request for someone to film the game. I offered to help. She explained that they would provide the camera and a booster would contact me to let me know more information. This evening I get a text from the coach asking how we can connect and he can get the film. He explains that since I never contacted him he assumes I already had a camera and handled things. I did not. By the end of the exchange it was made clear that I was somehow to blame here. That, dear reader, is leadership privilege. Or as my college buddies were fond of saying, “shit always rolls downhill.” He decided he could blame me for the situation and remain faultless. As he is the defacto boss of that world and completely controls my boy’s playing time, I cannot do anything. In truth, anything I do wouldn’t matter. He matters in that world and I do not. So, I straight up am not going to engage. Ever again.
Of course, no discussion of privilege can go by without talking about the idea of race. I was thinking about the latest iteration of the Daily Show as it is hosted by Trevor Noah. I often find myself thinking, ‘Wow, he has a lot of black guests.’ It is a noticeable thing. However that right there is the very evidence of privilege. When I see other talk show hosts and what not have a lot of white guests I never even think about it. Why? Because that’s how it is, that is how it always has been, so it is something that is different from the accepted normal seems strange or at least noticeable.
I can’t wait to the time when I don’t think that it’s weird that someone has a lot of black guests