For allies, a question of how to use privilege for good

If people don’t believe that privilege exists, can they be effective allies in building the “more perfect union” President Obama mentioned in his Friday speech about race, racism, and Trayvon Martin? When you do have a conversation about making America a better place for people of color without acknowledging white privilege, things can get testy, as they did on Sunday’s Melissa Harris-Perry.

Conservative radio commentator David Webb—despite insisting that calling something “normal” does not mean that anyone without that characteristic, be it skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability, is “abnormal”—got into a heated exchange with anti-racist activist Tim Wise over what responsibility white people have when it comes to ending racism.

“Most of us have” privilege, Wise said, “it’s about how we use it.”