Friday, September 12, 2014

Let’s Play Monopoly!

For those who continue to doubt or deny the existence and/or significance of white privilege, I’d like to offer the following thought experiment:

Two people, A and B, sit down to play a game of Monopoly. From the very first round, A cheats the game. Whenever he lands on a property, he declares that it’s his, but pays nothing into the bank for the property. If B “passes Go” he has to give the $200 to A, rather than keep it himself. If B gets a “Chance” card that is supposed to pay him money, the cash goes to A instead. If A pulls a “chance” card that says he’s supposed to pay money, B has to pay the fine. B isn’t allowed to own any utilities, and he can’t buy properties more valuable than Connecticut Ave. For the properties he does own, he can’t add houses or hotels.

This game continues for a long time, with A gathering more and more cash, owning more and more properties and utilities, and building more and more houses and hotels, and B stuck with almost no cash and very few properties, if any. Eventually, a new pair of players, C and D, sit down and take over the game from A and B. C has all of the money and assets that A acquired, and D has what little B acquired. They continue the game under the same rules, with the same pattern of C getting wealthier and wealthier and D staying far behind. This happens again and again, with E and F replacing C and D, G and H replacing E and F, and so on. Every time a new set of players arrives, they use the same rules that A and B did, and one of them has all of A’s assets, with the other one having what B and his successors accumulated.

This goes on and on, until finally Y and Z sit down to play. This time, things are different. The rules have changed, with Y and Z now having the same rights and privileges and the same opportunity. Y and Z are equal, except for one fact: Y has inherited all of the wealth that A, C, E, G, and their followers built up when the rules were rigged against B and his progeny. Y wants to play fair, he doesn’t want to take advantage of Z, he even likes Z.

Given these circumstances, my question is this: Is Y “privileged” over Z?