Power and Privilege

I tend to look at my own sense of privilege as being the results of hard work, intelligence and willingness. After watching the movie Crash I have been reflecting on how I have benefited from simply being a middle-aged white American male.

I know that I really have worked hard and have a reasonable semblance of intelligence to draw from. But as I met with the owner of a luxury lake home today with my business development manager in hopes of getting him to sign a contract so we can manage his home as a vacation rental I wondered how he would have reacted had I been a young black man, or a Hispanic. It probably would not have mattered my experience or intelligence, he might have only seen someone who would possibly rob him while he was away at his home in Arizona. I can only speculate, but minorities in North Idaho are very few and far between.  It seems odd that a guy like me has an innate privilege simply by my race and age. Like in the movie the main characters did not see their own prejudices and privilege as being that at all. I think we all struggle and our egos reassure us we are in the right, and cognitive dissonance may poke us in the side when we are in the midst of acting on our prejudices but conditioning and habits take a real strong jab to break through and see things as they actually are.