Читать книгу Understanding Racism - Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl - Страница 52

White privilege is able to maintain itself through the residential and social isolation of Whites from people of color. Upon recognition of their White privilege, these scholars recognized that they had spent their lives largely in White spaces. It did not occur to them to question why people of color were absent in their neighborhoods, schools, clubs, jobs, and even the media. McIntosh notes such privilege in this way: “I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time” because Whites have created isolated spaces in any number of professional and social circles.²⁰ Wise notes how he had Black friends in middle school, but by high school, racial segregation had taken hold, and his friendship circle became largely composed of Whites. Rothenberg, in retrospect, realizes that there were no Blacks in her school or in her parents’ segregated country club. As an adult, Rothenberg analyzes how “well-intentioned white liberals,” knowingly or not, reinforce this segregated color line, for even when they desire to move into a diverse neighborhood, they often choose to send their children to private schools instead of the local public school.²¹ By the time most White children get to college, they are not aware of how their racial segregation has become a norm, so, intentionally or not, they continue on with a life of White racial isolation.