Mirror of Privilege is a documentary movie examining the lives of white men and
women, and their confrontation with their inherited privilege. In the movie we see varies
interviews with young and old Caucasians. They express their suppressed, shocked,
misunderstood and hurt emotions in the realization of what they encountered in their
psyches, as well as the world around them. Personally, I had never heard any
white person share stories like this and was taken back. As the movie progress, I started
to understand their startling unheard of struggle with racism.
One person stated "Even though California is a diverse environment it is segregated." she
speaks about her childhood interactions with black people. She goes on later to say "We
lived somewhere different and rode different buses". Some whites as adolescents, were
taught to fear blacks and heard racist comments. Many had no knowledge about their
ancestors dealings with African Americans generations forgone and weren't
aware of their privilege. Black youth on the other hand lived with racism as a daily
reality as one woman’s friend put it, "I wake up every morning and say, I'm Black."
As they reached adulthood many Caucasians were awakening to the fact that life for them
didn't "mirror" that of that of the black experience in America. Gary Howard states as he
rode through a black neighborhood " I saw a 12 year old boy and he was living in third
world poverty”. In another similar incident two friends one white the other a man of color
were going on an annual trip to a multicultural event in another town. While driving
through a town in Illinois the black man slowed down and began driving consistly at that
pace.
The other man asked his friend, " What was all that about?". The man replied "You just
don't get it, the Ku Klux Klan meet here every year in this town and Black men get pulled
over for a DWB, ( Driving While Black) they'll pull me over just because I'm black”.
Many people in the documentary expressed being very hurt by other whites around
them, because of their negative feelings towards blacks. I saw many different phases
within the ones that started to understand how racist America and at times their own
families really were. One woman recounted being at college and while the black
fraternity would line up to pledge, the cops would stand and watch. Others disregarded
other whites as being racist, and them "good people". A man said he saw the unfair
treatment of blacks and decided to help them, making him a better white person, all the
while the "others" stayed others.
In the conclusion of the movie they began to get to the root of racism. Slavery. They
say that something is ajar in the Pathology of white people who in the past would go to
church and a lynching the same evening. The present generations are from these people.
Not only the people that performed the lynchings, but the victims of them as well. In
America there are racist barriers in the society, but also embedded in peoples psyches and
in order to clear this everyone, black and white alike must speak about this
issues wholeheartly for healing to take place. “Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world ; indeed , it's the only thing that ever
has".
