Otto Frank (father of Anne Frank) and Miep Gies. Amsterdam, May 9, 1958 / CC BY-SA 2.0
Using white privilege for good
I know the word ‘privilege’ makes a lot of people — especially a lot of white people — uncomfortable. I wasn’t aware of how privileged I am until 2015, when I started doing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and artEquity.
I’m still learning. I screw up all the time.
And I’m trying to be better.
My family experienced great tragedy during World War II. Some of my relatives hid a Jewish family. They were caught, and they were all sent to Auschwitz. The Jewish family, and my family members who hid them, were all killed.
I discovered this information when I was in middle school, working on a family tree assignment for history class. After learning this, I thought: What would I have done during that time? Would I have been able to be as brave as my relatives were?
During that same period, I read Anne Frank’s diary, where I learned about Miep Gies. Miep helped keep the Frank family and other Jewish people safe in hiding during the Nazi regime for as long as she could. She risked her own life multiple times to protect them.
When things started going bad ten years ago, the first time Trump was in office, I didn’t want to be thought of as ‘overdramatic’. I kept telling myself: It’s not that bad. Weird things are happening, but we’re going to get through it. We’re going to be okay. When Joe Biden became president, it felt like we could finally take a collective breath, and calm our nervous systems.
Now, the second time, based on all of my collective experience — what I know as a historian, through the books I’ve taught my students as a language arts teacher, and in my work as a theatre artist — things are getting bad. Really bad.
I don’t say that to scare people, or make them uncomfortable. But, if you just thought: Wow, that makes me really uncomfortable! — that is your privilege speaking. You have never needed to be afraid. You have never needed to fear things that many, many of our friends, family members, and neighbors fear. Those who do not carry white privilege often live with this kind of fear their entire lives.
The last little while, I’ve been thinking: What would Miep Gies do? I don’t know what the answer is yet, or how we are going to get there, but it is time to recognise that if we want things to change, we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. We need to use our privilege to help our neighbors, friends, and family.
I know that this time, I’m not being overdramatic. What’s happening is scary. What’s happening is… I don’t even know the right word for it. But those of us who carry white privilege must use it to help our fellow human beings. It’s time to step up. Now.
Ellicia Elliott is a theatre director, educator, and historian. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho. She lives and works on the traditional lands of the Palouse, Cayuse, Umatilla, Yakama, and Walla Walla Peoples.
