Initial Observations About My Inherent Privilege

I was born a white American. Although I had no control over my birth country or race, I received inherent privilege based on these characteristics. When I learned about my placement for the next year, I was told that my presence in Dalton, my new home, was already a success, that I did not have to do anything. Did that reassure and comfort me? Actually, I felt uncomfortable. In a town of 1,000 people, with few, if any, white people, I would be successful, not based on how I treated others, but solely if I lived with the people for one year.
In Cool Air, I sometimes feel like a celebrity when I walk down the streets. Let’s say there are different degrees to which someone sticks out (thank you philosophy major for this theory… just kidding!). The different degrees to which people discern a person sticks out are: degree one, by peripheral vision; degree two, by staring at you for one second; degree three, by analyzing your appearance; and, degree four, by interacting with you. In Cool Air, I am definitely am a degree one stick out; people can tell I am from somewhere else by their peripheral vision. When I walk around Cool Air some people look at me, some greet my host sisters and me, and one boy yelled across a parking lot that he loved me without speaking to me face-to-face, which my sisters thought was ridiculous. The students at my primary school greet me: “Hello Ms. Kate!” Nombulelo told me that a white person from Pietermaritzburg, the regional capital, or a black American would not receive the same attention as me, a white American.
At first, I did not know exactly how to respond to the attention I was receiving based on characteristics I could not control. I did not want to take advantage of my unfair privilege. I would return greetings, just not attempt to initiate greetings, which is unnatural for me. However, after feeling uncomfortable while walking around a few times, I realized that being kind to one another is how people should treat one another, no matter their motivations. I cannot change my race or country of birth, but I can determine how I react to related attention. Hopefully, my interactions over the next year will be determined primarily as interactions between human beings, who I understand to be beautiful children of God.