Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Participants of the Privilege Walk at the Yvonne Richardson Center in Fayetteville stand left or right of the center brown line in the center of the gym to represent the privilege they’ve experienced in their lives.
About 80 or so Northwest Arkansas citizens of different ethnicity, ages and backgrounds took part in a cultural awareness experience to understand privilege first-hand in a group setting Monday evening at the Yvonne Richardson Center in Fayetteville, Feb. 1.
The first event in a series to celebrate Black lives in Fayetteville, the Privilege Walk is about understanding the intricacies of white privilege in our current cultural landscape, including gender, race and language, according to Compassion Fayetteville.
The people in attendance participated in several group exercises that demonstrated the different levels of privilege and experiences the people in the room live with. Among the attendance was Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan, who gave a speech celebrating the opportunity for inclusion, and Alderwoman Adella Gray.
“It went phenomenal,” said Chase Jones, the program coordinator for the YRC who lead the event. “I’ve done this several times. Often someone is very defensive. Everybody here was so open to the idea of learning something and they welcomed and invited the challenge.”
The event began with a demonstration of physical privilege. Those who were taller than 5 foot, 10 inches were asked to stand in a line close to a trash can. Everyone else in the room was asked to stand behind them in groups of descending height with the shortest the farthest away from the trashcan. Then, everyone was asked to throw a paper wad at the trashcan from where they were. Unsurprisingly, those in the back found it the most difficult to make the basket.
Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Joseph Daniels (center, glasses), president of the UA Black Graduate Students’ Association, facilitates a group discussion after the privilege walk portion of the event.
From there, the crowds were split up into multiple groups, where the privilege walk began. Questions such as “Were your ancestors brought to the U.S. by force?”, “Can you walk alone at night without thinking about your safety,” “Have you ever tried to change the way you speak in order to fit in?” or “Do you feel that your ethnicity, gender or skin color has affected an employment opportunity?” With each question, individuals were asked to either step forward if they experienced a privilege, e.g. annual family vacations, or step backwards if they had experienced a negative.
By the end of the walk, it appeared many white men were the farthest forward and women of color were the furthest back in a “human graph” of sorts.
After observing their differences, the groups convened to reflect and discuss their thoughts and feelings about it. In one group, a white man spoke about feeling guilt in admitting privilege, and the powerlessness that followed not knowing how to equalize things. Others reflected on how privilege is a luck of the draw scenario, not an earned entitlement, but simply a matter of what you are born into.
A Chicana woman in another group spoke about her different experiences in New Mexico and Arkansas and how she had felt belittled and prejudiced in Arkansas. Others spoke about the clothes they wore and the way they talk as shields to society, but also how it lead to expectations for knowing Spanish or English.
“With regards to oppression, sometimes you have to keep your mouth shut in order to just survive the moment,” said a Latino man in another group.
Staff Photo Nick Brothers
An aerial view of the full group shows participants in the Privilege Walk moving left or right of the vertical center line of the gym at the Yvonne Richardson Center in Fayetteville, Ark., Feb. 1.
During the program, attendees were invited to post thoughts on Post-It notes to a “Feelings Wall” about their takeaways. At the end of the night, words such as “included,” “solidarity,” “exposed,” “joy,” and “hope” were on the wall.
“I realized not everyone is as privileged, and some people don’t have the same opportunities depending upon their situation,” said Antonio Garcia, a UofA student. “I told my group how I had experienced racism indirectly growing up in Bentonville and Rogers. At first it was pretty personal, but I got out of my comfort zone and it wasn’t just me. Everyone shared.”
It was also an opportunity for various resource groups to reach out to the community. Carl Dunn, the lead volunteer for Let’s Talk NWA— a support group for addressing domestic violence in the Black community — said he found empathy for the LGBT community while participating and spreading awareness of his organization.
“We see the things, but we don’t necessarily act on them a lot of times,” Dunn said. “More importantly, a lot of people want to know how they can help the situation, whatever it may be. We had a lady, who identifies as a man, of the LGBT community. I was so bent on them not calling it the civil rights movement, that’s like a slap in the face to black people — but listening to her and what she’s been dealing with I realized it’s just like that. They want that freedom to express themselves. It’s kind of a cross parallel, and that’s what I took from this.”
To close the event, the privilege walk was done again, only this time spanning the entire gym space at the YRC. Following that, a large group circle was formed for further reflection and closing comments.
“It is a very triggering subject,” Jones said. “It can be taxing on your emotions and your ability to remain politically correct and sometimes it can be taxing on your soul to hear stories that people tell and the experiences they’re having. Sometimes those experiences happen that day or last week and you live in that same community, y’know, that it exists. Those things that you talk about, it makes them very real.”
Considering the very personal and exposed nature of the activity, many of the participants spoke about the opportunity to be heard about some of the situations they’ve been in and how it made them feel.
“My biggest concern was we wouldn’t have a very diverse group,” said Angela Courage, who planned the Privilege Walk along with Jones. “A lot of people that are not black, don’t tend to feel they should celebrate Black History Month. We had a nice diverse group, and everyone got a benefit maximum learning from that diversity.”
