White Male Privilege
It was 1974. I was a high school senior with just above average grades, high test scores, and even higher aspirations. My college choices included Harvard, Dartmouth and Williams, as well as Washington, Miami and Denison. 1974 was the end of the era where a white male high school student was automatically given a “leg-up” in the admission process. It was also a time when high school guidance counselors had an “inside track” with some schools.
Harvard called my guidance counselor – and told her I was in. She ran down to let me know, in class, and for twenty-four hours I was in another world. Then the very thin letter arrived, embossed in Crimson, saying that I would not be going to Cambridge, Massachusetts in the fall. Williams also sent a letter, still thin, but letting me know that I was on the “waiting list.”
My counselor came back down and explained that this was a result of “affirmative action,” that a similarly qualified minority student was admitted, where I was left on hold. I was OK with that. I recognized that the benefits the generations before me received were unfair to everyone else. In 1974 we were trying to straighten out the world, and I was a part of that process.
In the end, I went to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and loved it. Denison challenged my mind, and gave me the flexibility to pursue all of my interests: politics and teaching (and ultimately coaching.) The choices of life plot a course, and the course that was set with the Denison decision is one that has been incredibly satisfying and fulfilling.
But let’s get back to 1974 and the supposed end of white, male privilege. While the more regulated processes, college admissions and such, were being altered, the cultural aspects took a lot longer to change. The culture said, “boys will be boys” to excuse incredibly poor behavior. Whether it was hazing on athletic teams, or drunken sexual assaults in quiet suburban neighborhoods; that “privilege” continued for decades, and in some places, goes on today. Those drunken “rites of passage” were the way it was supposed to be, no matter who got hurt.
It wasn’t everyone. The movie Dazed and Confused was about brutal hazing in 1976, but that was in Texas and the rest of the world wasn’t quite so crazy. Generally though, the white male privilege continued in one form or another, as does the tradition of alcohol, drugs and sex, both consensual and forced.
So it’s not a huge surprise that Brett Kavanaugh, class of 1983, might well have participated in some of these actions. It’s also not a surprise that a lot of folks, particularly white males, are defending him. This may be the “last bastion” of privilege, what happened behind wealthy suburban doors when the “adults” weren’t around.
There has been a great deal of discussion that the “Trump Era” is a throwback, a response to all of the dramatic social and cultural changes of the last two decades. One of the original essays in this “Trump World” series, Trump World and the Beaver, outlined many of those changes.
Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver never dealt with Wally and the Beav going to a drunken party; but it certainly happened. We can see this Kavanaugh nomination debacle as another battle in changing our world; not just because of what Kavanaugh represents as a future vote on the Supreme Court, but because of the symbolism of his past.
It will play out today, probably in excruciating and embarrassing detail. We will know far more about Brett Kavanaugh as a youth then we want to, even if there remains a question about what he did. Judging from what evidence is available, Kavanaugh was more likely “Dazed and Confused” then “the Beaver.” But what we will see, for sure, is a stand; a stand for white, male, privilege, led by Senators who gained every benefit of that bias.
