Privilege

There's been a lot of talk recently about white privilege.  What it is or if it's even a real thing.  This blog is not meant to be a soap box or a commentary on race relations.  What it is is a blog about books and if this blog touches on issues like race, privilege, and politics it's because they are covered in books.  Yes, even books for kids...especially in books for kids. Literature has great potential to shape our world view.  It sounds cliche but in reading we can live thousands of lives other than our own and that is why it is so important to be well read.  Yes, even in young adult literature...especially books for kids.

J.K. Rowling said that well written books for children often succeed just as much with adults, "because the true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life: those of belonging and betrayal, the power of the group and the courage it takes to be an individual, of love and loss, and learning what it is to be a human being, let alone a good, brave, or honest one.”

You probably noticed that the tone of today's post is, shall we say, preachier, than normal.  Here's why.  Rodman Phillbrick's Zane and the Hurricane forced me to confront my white privilege in a way that no Huffington Post editorial, meme, or Facebook rant ever could.

Zane and the Hurricane tells the story of Zane, obviously, as he goes to visit his great grandmother in New Orleans.  Zane's father died when he was young and he now lives with his mother in New Hampshire.  Zane describes himself by saying, "I'm what they sometimes call biracial or multiracial or whatever.  White mother, black father, okay?"

As you can probably guess from the title Hurricane Katrina hits while Zane is visiting his grandmother.  In the process of evacuating Zane's dog Bandit jumps from the van and Zane chases after him.  Which is how he ends up waiting out the hurricane all alone at his grandmothers house.  How he has to depend on the kindness of strangers in a canoe to rescue him.  How he has to be careful of men with guns trying to protect their property because he is clearly some kind of miscreant.  How he turns away from a packed superdome but the police won't let him cross the bridge.  How he keeps trying to survive without any sign of the red cross or any kind of relief.  

Don't get it twisted, my post is preachy, this book is anything but.  This book is simple.  It's just Zane's story, told from Zane's perspective. And it is a wonderfully written, brilliantly executed story.   It's not a fable with the moral clearly printed at the end.  It's not trying to hit you over the head with a message; but, for me, the message came through strong and clear.

Reading this book I found myself pitying Zane, I was confused as to why no cars were stopping to pick him up.  Why would nobody let him into their house?  They would have let me in....and that's privilege. I didn't ask for it and I don't think that it's right or fair, but to deny that it exists is selfish and counterproductive.

 Zane and the Hurricane forced me to confront topics that are uncomfortable, and I am so glad that it did.  Because of this book I can become a better person.  Because of this book I have a better understanding of privilege and what it means and how it impacts day to day life. Because of this book I can be a better friend and ally to those who are a different race.  Not by eliminating white privilege, but by making what is now white privilege simply the human experience.  So that all humans have the privilege of being trusted, of not being judged on first sight.  The privilege of not being stereotyped. The privilege of knowing that their life matters and is important and is worth helping when disaster strikes. More than that it is the privilege of knowing beyond any doubt that your life is worth protecting at all times regardless of the weather or the town you live in.

Learning to be a better human being...that's kids stuff.