Male White Privilege
There were about 35 people in my class. The instructor said that another five had paid their fee and didn't show up. The course runs 3 times a week pretty much year round. That is a lot of people attending this course. It was a good cross section of demographics. There was 6 women. I wasn't the oldest person in the class. Only seniors were not represented but they have a special course just for them. Most of us were ordinary drivers but there were two semi-drivers. There was a good cross section of races in the room. It was as if you went to the food court in any major mall and plucked out a few tables. It was a cross section of Manitobans.
It was an 8 hour course and we were given a workbook to follow along with. I learned some things. We watched informative video clips that showed us how some other countries are handling irresponsible drivers. There were a few really interesting stories. The instructor was awesome.
It was also a great reminder of white male privilege.
Most of us answered questions or shared some aspect of our experience, however, there were two young (under 30) white males who demonstrated white male privilege. They answered every question. It didn't matter what the scenario discussed, they commented. I was sitting next to a gentleman that I had never met before. At one point, he slipped me a note saying, "if those two guys know everything, why are they here." My thoughts exactly.
The instructor also told us that if we were able to get through the material quickly, we could get out earlier. Both of these guys were there for circumstances that had nothing to do with them. They were innocent., as they had told us many times. The rest of us, more or less, accepted responsibility for the error of our ways, and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. These guys told us over and over who they had appealed their attendance at this class but they lost. They used the F word to describe MPI. The police who caught them doing their infractions were fing idiots. And, that was mild.
The course was very interesting and we had some good discussion. Most people contributed one or two times. These two guys contributed to every discussion. They had something to say on everything.
It was an example of male white privilege. We had heard both their stories, and we remembered them. Only male white privilege would think that we needed to hear this over and over again. Frankly, they weren't that special and their stories weren't that interesting. Most of the attendees could have also commented on every situation, but we chose not to. We knew that our stories were just personal anecdotes and didn't advance the discussion. These two men were arrogant enough to comment on everything. Simple common sense teaches you that if you want something from someone that you treat them with respect and reverence. Only male white privilege would lead these two to believe that they call police officers idiots and then the police would give them a break. Only male white privilege would lead them to not accept any responsibility for their actions, firmly believing it was the other person's fault.
I could have contributed to every conversation, but I chose not to because I wanted to get out there early.
Only two young male white males would think they were that special that they felt compelled to talk all the time. Only two young white males would be oblivious to the body language of the rest of the group. These two boys weren't as special as they thought they were.
White male privilege. It exists.
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