Just Us: An American Conversation

While leaving someone’s home, a white man approaches Rankine and tells her that he believes “his greatest privilege is his height” (139). Rankine tells him that his whiteness is his greatest privilege. The man contends that, unlike other white people who have told him that they are afraid of Black people, he has no such fear because he used to play basketball. Rankine notes that he doesn’t mention that he played the sport with Black men because that seems to be understood. Rankine asks the man if he’s married to a Black woman. He seems taken aback by the question and says that he’s married to a Jewish woman. He adds that his wife is white. Rankine doesn’t ask about anyone else in his social circle. She also doesn’t ask him about “structural racism, weaponized racism, ignorant racism, internalized racism, [or] unconscious bias” (139).

Rankine is at a dinner party at which the guests are discussing the results of the 2016 presidential election. One guest is writing a book about it, but he is overlooking the role of racism in the outcome. The guest said that “[t]here was no way to predict that white Democrats who had voted for President Obama would vote in key states for a fascist regime” (143).