January reading notes - got privilege?

Two of the books that I read this past month had me thinking about privilege.  I have many privileges in my life.  I'm not saying any of these privileges are superior qualities.  Being born white and in the U.S. does not in any way make me better.  I'm also not saying that because of my privileges I have accomplished more.  Far from it!  People with fewer privileges have achieved much more.  Yet having these privileges has made my life easier in many ways.

Here are some of my privileges:
I am white.
I was born in the United States of America.
I was born healthy and have always had access to healthcare.
I grew up in a safe and cohesive neighborhood.
I had access to and attended good K-12 schools.
I graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree and a manageable amount of debt.
I grew up in a stable middle class family with two loving parents.
Through their strong example, my parents taught us to value: family, faith, education, community, hard work, civic and political engagement, service and volunteerism. 

All of those privileges or values I received by the fortune of my birth.  I recognize my privileges and am grateful for the values I was taught by my parents.  I also know that life is not a level playing field, and that many people start out with fewer privileges or none at all.  It doesn't take anything away from me to admit my white privilege or that I have a good work ethic due to my parents' example.  I don't feel that demeans me in anyway, so I don't understand why the idea of privilege is so controversial.  In my opinion, we need to recognize privilege in order to work toward overcoming many of the injustices in our society and our world. 

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

I highly recommend this book to everyone I know.  It's the type of nonfiction that reads almost like a novel due to the compelling stories of the people portrayed and the author's process and excellent storytelling.  Matthew Desmond lived among the people he wrote about - both in a trailer park on the south side of Milwaukee and in an apartment on the north side.  I never realized how bad the housing situation is for Milwaukee's low income families.  People are spending more than half their income on housing and much of the "affordable housing" is run-down and dilapidated.  People have little recourse as complaints or questions to their landlords more often lead to eviction than to resolving the problem.  The people and families portrayed here have few of the privileges that I listed above for myself.  And at every turn, they are met with more roadblocks and challenges.  Desmond explains how eviction used to be a rare phenomenon in our country, and how it has now almost grown into an industry.  And he shows the ripple effect of all those evictions.  Just a few examples: kids change schools so often they fall far behind academically; frequent turnover in rental properties results in the lack of relationships and bonds that create strong neighborhoods; mothers who are struggling to keep their families from being homeless become despondent and depressed. 

The cyclical nature of poverty is very evident.  It will make you mad and sad to read this book.  Desmond offers some hopeful stories and ideas of how housing programs could be structured differently.  He also explains his fieldwork process at the end of the book, and it's pretty fascinating to read about it.  There is a website connected to Desmond's book that gives more information about the eviction crisis and resources to help.  You can find that at justshelter.org.  We cannot do embedded fieldwork like Matthew Desmond.  But how can we better accompany and advocate for those on the margins?  Whether that's through service work or dialogue or political engagement - it's a very important question.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is a prolific author known for writing books on a variety of social issues or current topics.  Her novels typically follow a formula with characters on two sides of an issue, a courtroom drama and a dramatic plot twist.  Small Great Things is a book about race and privilege.  It's a page-turner and a good novel.  The plot centers on a black labor and delivery nurse who is prohibited from caring for the newborn of a couple who are white supremacists, and what happens when the baby dies not longer after birth.  The book is told from the point of view of the nurse, her white lawyer and the skinhead dad.  The characters are interesting and the courtroom drama is compelling.  Of course, there is the question of whether the author - a white woman - can treat the subject adequately or fairly.  I think she does a pretty good job.  Her author's note explains her process and research.  I read a variety of reviews, and I found this one by Roxane Gay in the New York Times to be a fair assessment - the good and the bad - of how Picoult tackles the issue of race.   

For my own part, I would say - go ahead and read this novel about race.  And then also read books written by people of color.  Authors write from all sorts of experiences and identities outside of themselves - from the point of view of a different gender or time period or nationality or race.  But I firmly believe that if we want to learn more about the experience of black people, we should read books written by black people.  A few books I've read fairly recently and recommend: March (graphic novels) by John Lewis, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  This year I'm planning to read books by Roxane Gay and Zadie Smith, two authors I've been wanting to read for a while.

*****

Also read in January:
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


In progress or up next:

March Trilogy (graphics novels) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (see more info here: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/march)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

What have you been reading?