My White Isolation

Rory Cuerdon

Media Studies

Lou Canelli

11/1/15

My White Isolation

Race is something that has never really affected me because of my geographical location.  The only concepts of black culture that I am exposed to are through different forms of the media such as television, video games, and movies.  Living in rural Vermont is the epitome of white privilege.  We not only reap all the benefits of being white, but for the most part, we don’t even need to think about the racial injustice that comes from white privilege because there aren’t many black people in Vermont anyways.

In rural Vermont the predominant race is white.  The few black kids at my school while I was growing up were actually African kids who were adopted by white parents.  These kids had in no way been influenced by the black culture in America.  To the rest of us white people in Vermont, these kids were just white people with darker skin.  They soon left their African cultures behind and became a part of our culture because of the influence that all the white people had on them.  This is not to say we meant to destroy their previous cultures, this was just a result of them living in a predominantly white area, and going to a predominantly white school.

It is hard for me to understand the problems with race in this country because of the place that I come from.  In such a liberal and accepting place, racial injustice is only a concept that can be described to me.  There are starting to be more black and hispanic people moving to Vermont in the time that I have lived here, but I am still not exposed to any racial discrimination towards these minorities.  This is a result of me living in one of the smaller towns of Vermont and going to private school.  I’m sure that there are still lots of problems with racial injustice and discrimination in some of the larger towns of Vermont, but I am personally not affected.

At this point, the only way that I can get real exposure to what’s going on outside of my comfortable white isolation is through conversations I have at school with my predominantly white peers and white teachers.  Other than that, my only other exposure is through the media.  This gives me a very false understanding of what black culture is actually like in America.

After coming to Putney I have been given a much different perspective on many of the problems going on in this country.  I learned about the civil rights movement and the supposed abolition of slavery in school.  But I have learned that this is just the ignorance of the white population thinking that all problems between the black and white populations are over.  In truth, black people are racially profiled and discriminated against everyday.  I hear about constant cases of police brutality against young black males and it has come to my attention that these are only a small few of the problems with racial discrimination.  When these instances do get out such as Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson or the Trayvon Martin case, the white population becomes shocked that this would ever happen.  This is because we have been living under the impression that racial injustice is over.

The problem with today’s racism is that it’s not as obvious as it was back in the early 20th century.  It has been hidden away through a carefully censored media.  Now that I am aware of these problems, I should theoretically be given the incentive to address these problems, and help in the fight to solve them.  I am lucky enough to have grown up with practically a guarantee on succeeding in life.  I am a white straight male whose family has enough money to send me to college.  I have been given option to just go to college, get a high paying job as an engineer, buy a nice house, marry a beautiful wife, have two kids and hopefully retire early.  This would be the selfish choice.  Not everyone in the U.S. has the same opportunities as I do.  But what do I care?  Becoming a social justice activist doesn’t help me in anyway so why would I do it?

The war against modern racism in the U.S. needs to come from the privileged.  I consider myself one of the privileged, but I feel no incentive to help in this fight.  This is a result of my white isolation.  The injustice in this country seems like a foreign concept to me, and to be honest, I won’t do anything about it until it directly effects me.  This is the cold truth, and most privileged people like me won’t admit it, but they do the same.  We can talk about these problems all we want, but nothing will happen until we are the ones affected.