Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Guest Blog: Another Issue for Our Time, “White Privilege”

By Benjamin Amenta

 I am taking a bit of a Choral Ethics break for my birthday, and today we have a guest blogger. I continue to work on Choral Ethics Blogs, so if you have a Choral Ethics dilemma or query or comment, please email me: .

This guest blogger’s opinion is we partake of various benefits that give life meaning, are thankful for them, and then talk about them.  Benefits are defined as activities which have nothing inherently wrong with them, such as choral music, but may include many other arts or activities. All people deserve the same benefits from life and today’s blog will discuss the problem of “white privilege.”

“White privilege” defined simply is that white people are more privileged and enjoy many more benefits, even if these benefits by themselves have nothing inherently wrong with them. These benefits may have been set up initially through prejudice.  It could be that Eurocentrism is dominating the landscape, at the expense of folks not already a part of it.  It could be imperfect societal structures favor those who are Caucasian.

Those of European ancestry have greedily oppressed anyone else in general during the last few hundred years.  The concept of “white privilege” is a way to give this unfortunate problem a name in order to begin to deconstruct inequalities once and for all.  We must begin to have an ideal layout of equal access to benefits, along with deconstructing ills universal and without prejudice.  In that respect, we nurture with affirmative action as well as structural policies.  But we also nurture universally, with the individual and cultural “spices of life” that we are all created equal.

Let us discuss “white privilege” in a negative sense.  Unfortunately, from the prejudices we all know about, it has been the trend when a white person behaves badly, they are let off the hook or even celebrated.  This is evident particularly in encounters with police, but also in other areas.  For example, those of us in music see preferences in favor of one type of people at the expense of others.  These behaviors, whether in public or in private, should be deconstructed in the name of justice.

There are a few things which could level the playing field, so that all may have equal access.  I see a handful of things that are blatantly racist, which need to be changed.  Various affirmative action prerogatives are required with awareness toward change for all.

Standards of bad behavior need to be universal, to properly discuss what constitutes bad behaviors are, no matter the color of skin.  Cultural differences need to be considered and incorporated.  Unified understanding needs to be applied at a basic level, without clinging to cultural prejudices.

The reason the term “white privilege” was coined was because of prior histories and current inequalities.   It is our duty to our fellow humankind to promote equal access.  In terms of bad behaviors, being more universal and not prejudiced may better eliminate the bad behaviors in the first place.

There is much work to do, and those specifics are beyond today’s blog.  But those of us in choirs, we do ourselves a service to reconstruct societal structures, so the benefits we enjoy are without oppression nor guilt.  Then “deep in our hearts we do believe, we shall overcome some day.”

Benjamin Amenta began piano lessons at the age of eight and received B.M and M.M. degrees in Piano Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University, where he was introduced to Social Justice issues in the context of Classical Music. Ben now focuses on Sacred Music. An active member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), Ben often writes on a multitude of subjects for AGO newsletters. He holds dual AGO memberships; the Southwest Suburban Chicago AGO Chapter and he is Dean of the Northwest Indiana AGO Chapter. Ben is the Midwest Motet Society’s Assistant Music Director, as well as accompanist, and sings baritone with the chamber choir.