Oscar Blayton
One weekend, in 1966, I was traveling with some Marine buddies from Eastern North Carolina to Myrtle Beach, S.C. After night fell, we began to see roadside signs advertising a “Fish Fry” taking place that evening near the South Carolina border. It was late, we had not eaten dinner; and fried fish sounded like a pretty good idea. We followed the signs that led down a dark country road to a point where cars were turning into an open field.
We fell into the long line of cars and pickup trucks and inched forward until we could see a man directing the vehicles to parking spots. Then, we realized that we had a big problem. The man was wearing a white Ku Klux Klan robe and conical headgear. My three traveling companions were White and I was in the back seat of the car; so we were able to pull out of line and head back to the main road without my being noticed.
No one in the car had said a word when we saw the Klansman directing the parking. No one needed to say anything. We all knew that we had come very close to entering a particular type of “White Space,” where my presence would not have been appreciated.
We joked about it later; after we had put several miles between us and the fish fry, and were certain that no one had followed us. And we continued our trip to Myrtle Beach without any more problems.
Once we got to Myrtle Beach, my friends and I split up, thinking that we could each do better meeting girls on our own, rather than in a “pack.” But it did not take long for me to realize that I had entered another White space. There was no one walking along the shore in Klan regalia, but I was clearly in another White space, the recently enacted Civil Rights Act notwithstanding.
America is littered with White spaces – and not just in the South.
A classic White space was Levittown, N.Y. in the 1950s. Blacks were not allowed to live, even though it was subsidized by G.I. Bill loans and other federal programs. Conservative talk show host, Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, grew up in Levittown, which explains a lot.
In years past, White spaces were the front seats of Southern city busses. They were those movie theatres and railroad cars reserved for “Whites only.” And while those vestiges of a meaner time have faded away, the stench of White spaces and white privilege still linger over America.
We saw that a few weeks ago when a group of mostly Black women were removed from the Napa Valley Wine train because of unfounded allegations of improper conduct. The wine train has since offered an apology, but that does not address the problem of why they were put off the train in the first place.
It is clear to all but the most confused among us that White privilege does exist. And the existence of White spaces is one of the many forms in which White privilege often manifests itself.
In the early 1950s I was 7 years old and my parents sent me away to a very nice summer camp in Vermont. The camp did not allow me to return the following summer, supposedly because I had gotten into too many fights. The truth was that I had not gotten into even one fight. The camp also instituted a new policy of requiring prospective campers to submit a photograph along with their applications.
Four years after my Vermont camping experience, a progressive Episcopal priest invited my family to join an all-White Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Va. Prior to our coming, there were no KKK robes, but several individuals made it abundantly clear that they were not happy with our presence. One prominent member of the congregation even suggested that Blacks and Whites did not go to the same heaven, not that he would know.
There are many manifestations of White privilege today, and White space is just one of them. And a Black presence in a White space is unwelcome because it contradicts the notions of White meritocracy upon which White privilege is ultimately justified.
When African American students complain of not being made to feel welcome at Ivy League schools, it is because they are perceived by some Whites to have trespassed into White space. When Black professionals occupying corporate suites get the “stink eye” from their White counterparts, it’s because executive proficiency and expertise is believed to be the domain of White people. In the minds of many Whites the only space available to Black folk is at the back of the bus, on the bottom rung of the economic ladder or in those human warehouses, called “prisons.” To some Whites, all of America is White space, and people of color are intruders or mere inconveniences whose presence are only allowed with permission.
White space is where White Americans expect to enjoy “the good life” and the bounty of this country. But as with an exclusive country club, most people of color need not apply.
Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activists who practices law in Virginia.