My Response To Leah Baldacci

The Maine Bar Association inexplicably entertained a racist diatribe from attorney Leah Baldacci of Lipman & Katz this week. You can hear the recording of their meeting here on YouTube, and Ms. Baldacci's remarks begin around the 23:00 mark.

I used her firm's contact form to send her the following feedback just now, in the spirit of the message I hear often from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color: 

Y'all white people need to get your girl i.e. talk to other white people and challenge their racist statements and/or behavior.

June 20, 2020

Dear Ms. Leah Baldacci,

I would like to explain white privilege to you, and why it is neither an accusation nor biased to observe that white women like me and you have it. My dad explained it to me when I was about 6 or 7 years old by saying, You are white and that makes you lucky. It does not make you better than people of other races, but it does mean that many doors will be open to you that wouldn't be if you were not white.

Throughout my years in central Maine I've heard a lot of pushback on the notion of white privilege. This is usually from low-income white people who say some version of, I may have grown up white but I certainly didn't grow up privileged, thus confusing class privilege with white privilege. 

There is also quite a history of white, privileged women making remarks such as you did recently to the Maine Bar Association. Sufragettes we were taught to revere as champions of women deliberately excluded Black women from their movement, or literally relegated them to the back of the parade. Not a good look.

Here's how I've successfully explained white privilege in the 21st century to those open to considering the notion: 

Did your teenager ever do dumb stuff that brought him or her to the attention of police? Most people in Maine will answer in the affirmative. My second question is: Were you afraid they would die as a result? Most will answer no. And that, in a nutshell, is white privilege.

You may want to do some more reading on the subject of intersectionality (how various systems of oppression such as sexism and racism intersect and amplify each other). Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw developed the theory of intersectionality. She's a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, specializing in race and gender issues, and worth a read.

Finally, I will pass along what Black, Indigenous and other people of color tell white people who have made blunders in speaking about race in public: impact counts more than intention. And also: white people, you need to do the work with other white people around their racism.

Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Savage

Solon