Chris Jepson: The race for smooth sailing

“Privilege is driving a smooth road and not even knowing it.” – Ampersand

I’m from Iowa. Proudly so. Iowa, in case you didn’t know it, is the seventh whitest state by race in America, at 92.5-percent white (2013 statistics).

I mention race because, well, race is always at the forefront of issues in America. One of America’s great black leaders, W.E.B Dubois said in 1903 that, “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.” We’ve crossed that century threshold, yet anyone with half-a-load-on sees that race remains an immensely divisive issue in America.

As a card carrying white boy from Iowa, I grew up with nominal contact with non-whites. The minority for disparagement of Northwest Iowans in the 1950s were Native Americans. In my hometown of Sioux City, the public drunks that one infrequently observed appeared to be dissolute Native Americans. Minorities (and their challenges) simply were off my radar.

I did not observe — either in my family or friends or local society — much derision of non-whites. I cannot ever recall having a discussion about race in my home other than one time in 1974 while visiting my father he observed out-of-the-blue that, “Negroes just want the same opportunity to have what we all have.” Candidly, I do not think there was overt (verbal) racism against blacks simply because there were so few minorities that they might as well have been nonexistent (no perceived threat).

My ancestors arrived from Aarhus, Denmark in the 1870s. They settled in Sioux City. My grandfather was the first of his generation to actually be born in America. His brothers were born in Denmark. The three brothers, George, William and Christian became pillars of the Sioux City establishment. A judge, a doctor and a lawyer. Uncle Will was instrumental in starting the two hospitals that exist there today. My grandfather, while serving in the Iowa legislature, oversaw the rewriting of the Iowa legal code. All three of my grandfather’s sons became attorneys. Into that privileged (advantaged) environment I was born in 1949.

The idea of white privilege is a controversial subject in America today. I’ll speak from the perspective of my family. No one in my family participated in the Indian Wars or owned slaves or joined in Jim Crow segregation. My grandfather at one time owned nearly 100 properties in and around Sioux City. The issue of selling or renting to a minority didn’t arise because the demographics of “our” town didn’t present that racially charged issue.

I pose the question, “Have I benefitted from white privilege?” Unequivocally, yes. The idea that white folks (such as myself) have a leg-up in America simply on account of their skin color is undeniably true yet controversial.

I have been advantaged because I have no racial history of being marginalized, oppressed or terrorized. My ancestors freely acquired educations allowing them to secure wealth, property and investments. They had unlimited opportunities and conveyed to their offspring a perspective to approach life similarly, passing on attitudes and capital.

America was founded on many ideas and practices, slavery, oppression and genocide unequivocally among them.

Tim Wise, activist and writer offers, “The irony of American history is the tendency of good white Americans to presume racial innocence. Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words. It is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.”

As a privileged white boy, I sadly agree with Mr. Wise.