Navigating Privilege: A Selection from Jacqueline Novogratz’s The Blue Sweater (2009)
“In the first year I allowed NGL’s group of 24 fellows to be held hostage in their discussions by a small group of activists who verbally attacked any thoughts with which they disagreed. Though extremely talented in their fields, those individuals rarely offered constructive solutions to problems and, ironically, represented exactly what we were trying to avoid in the program: leaders who were more comfortable flinging opinions than basing arguments on principles and facts.
My biggest flaw was that I was not being true to myself. In that first year, a young African American man intimidated me in front of the fellows by claiming I could never lead the group properly because I was white, privileged, and connected to the Rockefeller establishment, which he believed had done great damage to the world. Instead of confronting him directly, I stared like a deer caught in the headlights and tried defending myself as someone who had worked hard to cover university tuition and make my way in the world. I could almost feel the 24 fellows sink into themselves as I absorbed the young man’s verbal blows without setting an example for both giving and insisting on respect.
It took months for me to understand that my biggest error had been trying to defend an implausible position. In a way, the young man was right—I was privileged. I’d been to some of the best schools on the planet and was raised by a loving family, and my white skin offered me significant access. The question wasn’t whether I was privileged, but whether that privilege disqualified me from effectively running the program. I had responded to the wrong attack—and had done so lamely, at that.
Instead, I should have asked the young man why he chose to stay in a program when he disdained its host, the Rockefeller Foundation. He sounded like a trust-fund kid who spends the day badmouthing his parents while eagerly accepting their money. Indeed, the affiliation with Rockefeller provided him not only with instant credibility, but also gave him networks and contacts that afforded him significant access. In not confronting him, I let down the program and myself.
Though I was no longer the young woman staring at two champagne bottles and wondering what to do in the face of inequity, this question of navigating privilege in its many manifestations would continue to present increasingly nuanced questions. I’d learned that individuals gain privilege by their upbringing, beauty, athletic ability, or education, not simply from where they come or to whom they are born. My first-grade nun had instructed me that from those to whom much is given, much is expected.”—Jacqueline Novogratz, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World (2009)
