MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
White privilege. It’s a term we hear far too often, but what exactly does it mean in a city like Memphis, a city with so much civil rights history, the place where Dr. Martin Luther King took his final breath?
Local 24 News is exploring this topic as part of a number of uncomfortable conversations we plan to have in the coming weeks.
Local 24 News Weekend anchor Annette Peagler talked to a white couple visiting from Phoenix, Arizona, and a black father from Memphis and asked them what first comes to mind when they thought about the term white privilege? Although their perspectives were different, they all agreed it’s a problem that clearly still exists.
Troy Wild and his family were visiting Memphis for the first time and had a candid conversation about race, particularly white privilege in America.
“It’s sad and when you hear these terms like systemic racism, obviously there’s something going on around that. It’s probably better than what it was 20 or 30 years ago but it’s just sad,” Wild explained.
Wild says he’s reminded of the state of our nation especially when he drives.
“When I drive --and we’re from Phoenix-- and I’ll drive and I’ll think ‘oh is this a really slow driver in front of me,’ and I’ll think it’s an old lady, and it’s not, it’s like a young black guy driving real slow, and I’ll think ‘oh he’s driving real slow and cautious because he doesn’t want to get stopped,’” Wild explained.
Leonard Hill was raised in South Memphis and said he saw white privilege daily.
“I remember when I grew up, if we was on the parking lot playing and doing things having fun the police would come and run us home, versus the Caucasians,” Hill explained.
Hill says in 2020, many things haven’t changed.
“It’s still around, it just changed in a different format, but we as people we get along but still it’s there,” Hill said. “And you won’t see it until it happens to one of them versus us because they are going to stick together just as we would, but see when we stick together it’s a problem.”
While both of these viewpoints may be different, they all agreed these talks can help.
“I’m so happy because my son today, little white kid from Phoenix, playing with a bunch of black kids and it’s like that’s the way it should be and they don’t know, they don’t care, they’re just a bunch of kids having fun,” Wild explained.
Wild stressed many of these open conversations should happen in law enforcement, specifically to avoid a situation that took George Floyd’s life in Minneapolis.