White Privilege, the Seattle Public School District and White Liberal Guilt

As a result of the definition of racism post, a comment left on a Sound Politics post pointed to the Seattle School District's Equity and Race Calendar which for April 26th, 2006, contained an entry for "WHITE PRIVILEGE CONFERENCE 7". This conference has all sorts of "interesting" people and ideas such as "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh who seems surprised that most people she comes into contact with are of her same race which I would have hoped would seem obvious since she is part of the majority race.

But here is where I think it gets weird.... the conference is sponsored by The Bush School, a school that is 84% white, 5% Black and charges $18,810 a year to attend. In randomly looking at the school staff, it appears 84% is probably low when describing the percent of the staff that is white. The Bush School is 3 blocks away, 370 yards per Microsoft MapPoint, from M.L. King Elementary which is 10% white, 82% black and scheduled to be closed by the Seattle School District, partly due to its poor performance. I think Ms. McIntosh should visit some classes at Bush, meet the faculty and see if she can find any white privilege present.

Full disclosure, my best friends daughter is currently enrolled at Bush, a former neighbor sent both of her sons to Bush and all are exceptional kids. I am sure Bush is a wonderful school and for almost 20K per year, it had better be.