The truth of white privilege should not be ignored | READER COMMENTARY

I was shocked to read that a letter writer to The Sun is protesting the use of the term “white privilege,” as some white people may be offended and as all of us are suffering from the effects of the pandemic as well as the harmful effects of natural disasters (“Don’t use the term, ‘white privilege,'” Sept. 22). To deny that white privilege has long existed is an insult to African American citizens who were victimized over the centuries by white privilege. Many whites have chosen to ignore the fact that they have benefited from white privilege.

In Baltimore, almost everything was segregated. This dehumanizing system was in place from the moment of one’s birth. For years, many Baltimore hospitals would not admit Black patients, and neighborhoods were segregated with Black residents paying rents well above what white residents would pay for the same rental property. Black people couldn’t get a job as a salesperson in any of the Baltimore department stores, nor could they get white collar jobs in banking or corporate America. Black people couldn’t work as servers in restaurants.

To get an education beyond high school, Black people had limited options as far as college selection was concerned. Maryland Black people had to leave the state to attend graduate and professional schools. Black Americans were denied opportunity for centuries. Doors were closed and stayed closed. White Baltimoreans did not willingly integrate as that would mean losing their white privilege. The fact is that intelligence and a good work ethic has to do with ability and opportunity and not race or gender. To pretend that white privilege did not have an harmful effect on our African American citizens is a slap in the face to all who were denied fundamental opportunities.

The truth is that white privilege did exist and that it is the root of many of the problems we as a nation are confronting. Our goal should be to eliminate all vestiges of racism and white privilege and to accelerate true opportunity for all citizens. We cannot ignore the truth of our history as that diminishes the lives of those who were passed over by the systemic racism in our country.

Edward McCarey McDonnell, Baltimore

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