What’s part of white privilege wasn’t clear?
Jose Luis Vilson has been picking at the scab of race around issues in ed reform recently. This post about the “white suburban mom” gaffe US Secretary of Education Duncan last week showed that some folks were not in favor of contextualizing both the original comment, and the public response, in terms of race. I understand where Mr. Vilson is coming from. I corrected some folks when this broke on social media last weekend about whether calling moms “white” was racists because if he had said “black” moms, it would have been. I can’t even picture the Secretary saying that, not because of the potential offense it would cause, but because he doesn’t even feel he has to address their concerns.
The Gary Larsen cartoon above is a pretty good depiction of the dynamic. When white suburban moms speak, it’s like the owner talking to a dog
