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    © All Rights Reserved
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    45 views24 pages

    Devon Carbado Privilege

    Uploaded by

    AnaKarenGarcíaVillalpando

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 24
    ny ss A CRITICAL ANTHOLOGY Pa eet L EL) OL aU ttl TEs Pree Cet DEVON W. CARBADO PRIVILEGE Te may be... that a damaging bias toward heterosocil or heterosexst assumptions inheres unavokdably in the very concept of gender... The ukimate definitional base st necessarily be tothe diacritical fioatier between different genders, This gives heterosacial and heterosexual relationships a conceptual privilege ofa . Children will be aught in school, explicitly or implicitly about the naturalness of heterosexuality (they will also be taught to internal- ize the notion of white normativty). Conversations on black liberation will always include conce about heterosexual men, . Heterosexvals can adopt children without being perceived as selfish and without anyone questioning their motives: Heterosexuals are not denied custody or visitation rights of their children because they are heterosexuals. Heterosexual men are welcomed as leaders of Boy Scout troops. Hreterosexuals can visit their parents and family as who they are, and take their spouses, partners, or dates with them to family functions. . Heterosexuals can talk matter-of factly about their relationships with their partners without people commenting that they are “flaunting? their sexuality Ablack heterosexual couple would be welcomed as members ofany black church, puivitece 205 Heterosexual couples do not have to worry about whether kissing each other in public or holding hands in public will render them vulnerable to violence Heterosexuals do not have to struggle with “coming out” or worry about being “outed, The parents of heterosexuals do not love them “in spite o sexual orientation, and parents do not blame themselves for their children’s heterosexuality Hiterosexuality is affirmed in most religious traditions. Heterosexuals can introduce their spouses to colleagues and. not ‘worry about whether the decision will have a detrimental impact on their careers A black het black and being heterosexual Het at work without causing office gossip or hostility sogexual male does not have to choose between being osextals can prominently display their spouses’ photographs (White) heterosexuals do not have to worry about “positively” rep resenting heterosexuality. Few will take pity on a heterosexual on hearing that she is straight, or feel the need to say, “That's olay” (though itis not uncommon fora black person to hear, “It’s ob e that you're black” or “When we look at you, we don't see a y that you're black” or “We don’ black person’ Male ‘pathology” of the black family heterosexuality is not considered to be symptomatic of thi Hiterosexuality is never mistaken as the only aspect of one’s life cad as merely one more component of bat is perceived inst styl one's personal identity. er the impact their (White) heterosexuals do not have to worry 0 nally on their children’s lives, particul sexuality will hav ait relates to theie social lives (though black families of all identit configurations do have to worry about how race and racism will affect their children’s well-being). Heterosexuals do not have to worry about being “bashed” after leaving a social event with other heterosexuals (though black peo cially ple of al sexual orientations do have to worry about bein bashed” on any given day). Every day is (white) “Heterosexual Pride Day: { have argued that one of the ways to contest gender and sexual orientation hierarchy is for heterosexual men to dail their social experiences on the privileged side of gender and sexual orientation, In advancing this argument, do not mean to suggest that the role of these men isto leg worthy” and “self-interested” victim-centered accounts of discrimination. There isa tendency on the part of dominant groups (e.g, males and hetero sexuals) to discount the experiences of subordinate groups (e.g, straight women, lesbians, and gays) unless those experiences are authenticated or legitimized by a member of the dominant group. For example, itis one thing forme, a black man, tosay [experi .ced discrimination in a particular social settings itis quite another for my white male colleague to say he witnessed that discrimination, My telling of the story is suspect because 1 am black (racially interested). My white colleague's telling of the story is not sus pect because he is white (racially disinterest The racial transparency of whiteness—its “perspectivelessness"*’—renders my colleague's account bj TThe problem of racial status (in)credibility is quite real. Consider how Comel We: alludes to it inthe following anecdote about his inability to get a cab in New York City Aer the ninth taxi refinsed me, my blood began to boil. The tenth taxi refused me and stopped for a kind, well-dressed, smiling female fellow citizen of European descent. As she stepped in the cab, she said, “This is really ridiculous, is it not2” Ualy racial memories of the past flashed through my mind, Years ago, while driving from New York to teach at Williams College, 1 was stopped on fake charges of trafficking cocaine. When I told the police officer I was 2 professor of religion, he replied, “Yeh, and I'm the Flying Nan, Let’ go, nigger!” I was stopped three times in my fist ten days in Princeton for driving too slowly on a residential street with a spe of twenty fi dlimit e miles per hour, .. . Needless to say, these incidents are dwarfed by those like Rodney King’s beating... . Yet the like a merciless knife at my soul as I waited on that godforsake Finally I decided to take the subway. I walked ived late, an had to catch my moral breath as 1 approached [my sand whi appointment with] the white male photographs female 1 | 1 | 208 cover designer. ehose not to dwell on this everyday experience of black New Yorkers. And we had a good time talking, posing, and taking pictures. Here West is connecting two problematic episodes. Mis racial representations of these episodes reflect concerns about his racial credibility. His narrative suggests that he is worried about how his readers will read him (js he a trustworthy witness?) and thus read the events he describes (do they reflect racism?). West understands that he is (ot, rather, will be constructed as) an ‘unreliable witness to his own racial victimization. ‘That is, be is fully aware that as a black man his racial story (like his racial identity) is suspect. Thus, disinterested” witness to legitimize and authenti an be he thetorically deploys a rropean descent.” She 8” and “smiling” To the cate his racial narrative—the woman “ol trusted. She is white and respectable—“well-

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