A 'Note' On White Privilege

I wrote this 5 years ago after my husband and I had just moved into our house.  It is, unfortunately, all too relevant today.

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The other day I returned home from work to find a bright yellow note taped to the front door of my Grand Rapids house on the corner of Hall and Philadelphia, the contents of which my husband and I found terribly offensive – and not just because of the opening run-on sentence.

The note, delivered by an anonymous "neighbor," contained warnings from both the GRPD and the Ottawa Hills Neighborhood Watch about a recent rash of break-ins in the area enclosed by Hall, Giddings, Franklin and Plymouth streets. This part of SE Grand Rapids, while it is bordered by more economically and racially diverse neighborhoods, is made up of predominantly white upper-class citizens with large houses and expensive cars.

The first warning, from the GRPD, described two recent break-ins. In the first, nothing was reported stolen, nor were there any suspects indicated. In the second, some electronic equipment was reported stolen with suspects indicated as “four B/M’s (late teens/early twenties).” It was the third described incident that first gave me pause. It read,

"At about midnight on 9/2 a neighbor in the 800 block of Cadillac observed 3 suspicious B/M teenagers walking through the neighborhood ‘casing’ houses. The subjects were contacted by police at Alexander and Giddings. The subjects were not from the neighborhood."

It went on to explain that the victim of the earlier break-in was called in for possible identification, but could not say whether they were involved. So why does the incident bear reporting? It appears as if the only thing the subjects were guilty of was ‘walking in a white neighborhood while black.' My husband and I, both white, walk through the mansion-laden neighborhoods of EGR on a regular basis. We will often pause for minutes at a time to observe architectural details of the houses and point out features of the landscaping we like. We’re not ‘from the neighborhood’ either. But, unlike the black male subjects from the third reported incident, never once has anyone accused us of ‘casing’ houses. The end of the GRPD warning urges residents of these neighborhoods to call the police if they see “suspicious persons” or anything “out of the ordinary.” Of course, they don’t specifically say to call the police any time they see a black male wandering around, but my guess is that no one will be calling the police when they see me or my husband passing by. My husband and I have the privilege of not looking ‘out of the ordinary’ in a white neighborhood.

The second warning in the note was from the Ottawa Hills Neighborhood Watch. It contained the following suggestions:

Any time you see kids you don’t recognize cruising around on bikes or wandering down the street with no apparent purpose, call the police to report suspicious activity. Tell them there have been several B&E’s in the area lately and these kids don’t belong here. Do the same if you see kids riding more than one to a bike – they’re not being cute, they’re looking for a bike to steal.

Once again, the note does not specifically say to watch out for black kids cruising around on bikes, but it certainly implies it in every possible way. After all, would white kids riding bikes be considered ‘suspicious’ in a mostly-white neighborhood? White kids have the privilege of looking like they ‘belong’ in white neighborhoods. My husband and I don’t have children, but if we did, I don’t think either of us would have to be nervous that allowing them to ride their bikes through the neighborhood across the street would cause them to get arrested or even questioned by police. And, as for the ‘two kids per bike’ comment… Though, again, they did not specify to watch out for two black kids on the same bike, I would venture a guess that two white kids on the same bike in EGR would be more likely considered ‘cute’ than criminals. Never mind the fact that a more likely reason for any two kids to be riding the same bike is simply because it's fun.

The note needed only to contain a suggestion for people to lock their cars and homes and keep an eye on their neighbor’s houses for suspicious activity. Instead, and in a not-so-subtle way, the perpetrators of this note have encouraged an entire neighborhood of white people to be suspicious of literally anyone in their vicinity who doesn’t look like them.

The beginning of the Ottawa Hills Neighborhood Watch warning starts out with this statement, “Some helpful, if nasty sounding hints:” Yes, racism is nasty, isn't it? But it’s for a good purpose, they claim. The note concludes by assuring neighbors that they will, “feel mean making the call, but they could very well be saving a neighbor’s property and peace of mind.” A final piece of white privilege: the ability to justify making generalizations about an entire race of people based on the actions of a few and just feel a little ‘mean’ about it. I think it is time we start feeling a bit more than that.