The smug face of white privilege

smug That smug face that brims with confidence. It has a smirk that says

I will win.

I’ve already won.

I cheat to win.

I can buy the judge, buy the cops, write the rules, make the laws.

I create alternative facts. I have my own news stations. I pay off porn stars.

I got the pipeline moved from my neighborhood to your neighborhood with only a short private conversation at the golf club.

I don’t need to protest. You do.

I don’t need to bang a drum to be heard. You do.

I’m only seventeen and you’re an elder, but I still have more power than you.

My elders bought my land fair and square from the Cherokee.

I can act with impunity. I’m innocent; I’m not even saying anything. I will tell my teacher I did not participate. I have nothing to do with all my friends behind me mimicking you and your people. My campaign may have colluded, but I did not. I just looked at you, that’s all.

But some day that smug face won’t have a smirk any more.

About Stephen Carr Hampton

Stephen Carr Hampton is an enrolled citizen of Cherokee Nation, an avid birder since age 7, and a former resource economist for the California Department of Fish & Game, where he worked as a tribal liaison and conducted natural resource damage assessments and oversaw environmental restoration projects after oil spills. He writes most often about Native history and contemporary issues, birds, and climate change.

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2 Responses to The smug face of white privilege

Stephen Carr Hampton says:

January 21, 2019 at 11:07 AM

Two additional thoughts:

1) In nearly all Native cultures, elders are respected far more than in ambient US white culture. They are deferred to and they are not challenged. Traditionally, eye contact between younger people and older people or people in authority, is considered rude and confrontational. Younger people should cast their eyes down. While this is alien to US mainstream culture, it is still a thing to some extent in some Native communities. This is part of the Native outrage about this incident– and it’s obviously confrontational regardless of culture.

2) Adding one more to the list of white privilege, the boy’s family has hired a professional public relations firm to help them issue statements in response.

Mark Bahner says:

March 8, 2019 at 11:09 AM

You seem to be able to tell a lot from a single picture. Here is a 15 minute video: