Calm your (white) privilege
The quality of health care given to rich white people is just vastly different
Welcome to The Breaking Point, a weekly newsletter that explores the historical legacies of injustice based on the news cycle to understand what in the world is going on.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
The best explanation I’ve ever heard of white privilege was when I interviewed Rebecca Cokley, a disability rights activist, for a recent story I wrote for Vox. We were talking about playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the pandemic, and Rebecca started telling me her story of starting the game from scratch when her Switch suddenly broke (a week before players were able to upload the game to the Cloud). She told me how people and friends she met through an online Animal Crossing community came to her island to drop off gifts such as gold, fruits, fencing, carpeting, and clothes. Here is how she explained white privilege in Animal Crossing terms:
So I started a new game way ahead of where I would have been before. Imagine starting off the game immediately with two million bells, all kinds of fruits, a billion tools, people bringing you clothes and other things. You had so much shit that you didn’t have room to put any of it because the game hasn’t evolved to keep up with you yet and your island is still like a swamp.
“That is what white people have,” she told me. “That is how wealth is extended generationally.”
Animal Crossing aside, though. Over the past weekend, a different scenario of white privilege emerged. As you all should know by now, the President of the United States was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday (though reports claim it was way earlier than that). The virus soon spread to several White House aides and staffers. On Monday, after being discharged from the hospital, President Trump told the American people in a video to “not let COVID-19 dominate your life. Don’t be afraid of it. We have the best medical equipment …”
Well, for you.
Figure of the week: 105
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Washington D.C. as of Tuesday, the highest number since June 3. The US capital has managed to keep the virus at bay, but the sudden spike comes in concert with the current outbreak at the White House. (Source: The New York Times)
It’s easy for a president — who had a team of medical experts closely monitoring his health, got an infusion of experimental cocktail of antibodies, was quickly put on steroids when his oxygen levels plummeted, and was immediately whisked by a helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — to blatantly say what Donald Trump just said.
Calm your privilege, man.
Trump’s experience, along with that of his aides and the rest of the top one percent in America, is a world away from the constant obstacles that most COVID-19 patients have to go through after a positive test result, such as not getting adequate care, not having health insurance and not being able to pay for medical bills.
That is what white privilege looks like. The less complex definition is that white people essentially have access to a set of privileges that are only available to them. White people have had a head start to get an education, seamlessly move up in society, and gain benefits and opportunities, all thanks to the color of their skin. In contrast, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) folks have to work extra hard and double the amount to get to their level.
But because the advantages are so structurally ingrained in white society, privileges often go unnoticed. Many white people believe that their own successes and victories are entirely a result of working hard, and that they can’t possibly have benefitted from white privilege due to their own personal hardships. This denial and misconception of white privilege also comes from being exposed to a merit-based society. In essence, white privilege is a legacy of white supremacy, which means it has a legacy of racism.
Racism is evident everywhere from the workplace, environment, education, housing and more. But several studies show the vast disparity when it comes to the quality of health care given to people of color compared to white people. For instance, a hospital located in a predominantly white neighborhood is most likely to be more well-equipped and well-staffed than a hospital in a neighborhood of color. Perhaps another legacy of redlining and lack of community investment as well.
But these are some things to think about and reflect on in the coming days especially as political misinformation grow rampant and protests for racial justice continue in the streets. I am quite frankly keeping this newsletter short because I know, like me, you probably have had enough of the exhausting news cycle. Unfortunately for me, the news is part of my job so I’m inclined to take only a certain amount of break. But please don’t deprive yourself of a mental health day and don’t forget to drink water.
Question of the day (inspired by my EPA journalism workshop this week): What's the last thing you read, heard or watched that made you forget, for just a moment, that we were living through a pandemic? Send me a note, curious to hear your answers!
ps: Happy Filipino American History Month!!!
Story breakers 📖
'Overlooked': Asian American Jobless Rate Surges But Few Take Notice by Scott Horsley, NPR
The Trump Administration Lost Millions of Dollars of Food and Water Meant For Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria by Nidhi Prakash, Buzzfeed News
Maine Hires Lawyers With Criminal Records to Defend Its Poorest Residents by Samantha Hogan, The Maine Monitor, with data analysis by Agnel Philip, ProPublica
EPA Grants Oklahoma Control Over Tribal Lands by Ti-Hua Chang, The Young Turks
Millions of Americans risk losing power and water as massive, unpaid utility bills pile up by Tony Romm, The Washington Post
How to fix America’s voter registration system so more people can vote by Jen Kirby, Vox
thanks for reading, and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. see you next week!