A example of white privilege

Sometime in 1955, a secretary in Richmond, Kentucky picked up an envelope, slit it open with her letter opener, and pulled out an application for admission to Eastern Kentucky University.

She passed it on to the appropriate people in the registrar's office, who read the following:

The applicant listed his date of birth as August 24, 1932, which would make him either 22 or 23, depending on when the application was received.

He was born in Baxter, Kentucky, right next to Harlan, a town built on the coal industry and famous (infamous?) for union violence.  No doubt the people who read the application knew the term "Bloody Harlan".

He graduated from Rosspoint Elementary in 1947; hmm, decent grade point average, in spite of the fact that they couldn't do a full school term in the mid-1940's.

Yes, he was a high school graduate, class of 1953, Loyall High School; again, decent grade-point average.

Of particular note to the reigstrar's office was the applicant's service in the military.  He was in the Army between 1953 and 1955, stationed in Pusan, Korea.  He didn't fight in the Korean War, because the conflict was over by the time he got there.  Although he'd been assigned to an ordnance unit, he wound up being a company clerk, an indispensable part of his military unit.

The applicant may or may not have mentioned that he was the fourth child of five, and that his mother raised their family alone after the father died in an accident.

He'd never been in trouble with the law, and he had decent character references, all of whom attested that he'd make a good addition to the student body at Eastern Kentucky.

The office stamped the application "accepted", and soon after, a secretary dropped an envelope in the mail addressed to Baxter, Kentucky, containing a letter welcoming the applicant to the graduating class of 1960.

Not only did he graduate with that class, he returned later to obtain his teaching credential, which he used in a successful teaching career.

In the above, I just dramatized/fictionalized my father's application to college.

Now, I want you to take a look at his information and ask yourself one question:

If, on the application, the race listed was "colored" instead of "white", what do you think the decision of the registrar's office would have been?

Your answer to that question may give you a good example of white privilege.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.