‘Privilege walk’ a good reminder to lift up others

I was recently asked if I would like to attend an AADP (African American Diary Professionals) meeting by one of my partners. I agreed and was blown away by everything this business resource group did for February’s Black History Month. 

After this first meeting, I decided I would like to support AADP by volunteering to help with the logistics of any upcoming home office events. The first event that needed my help was a “privilege walk” that was scheduled to take place the day before Diversity and Inclusion Awareness Day.

On the day of the event, the task I was assigned to do was already completed when I arrived. I asked the event’s organizer, Jamie, if there was anything else I could do and she said I could participate in the walk.

I had never heard of a privilege walk. Jamie had sent the team a short video clip explaining the concept. In a nutshell, everyone starts on the same starting line. A series of 20 yes or no questions follow. Depending on their answer, participants are asked to take a step forward or stay where they are. At the conclusion of the event, participants are able to see where they stand in relation to the remainder of the group.

At this point in the story, it is important for me to share that I really didn’t intend on participating in the event. It’s not that I was against it in any way. I simply had not considered taking the time to actually participate. Noticing that I was the only white male present, I decided to join the event.

Once the walk began, it was easy to see I was going to be the front-runner. There were some questions that I felt could be considered challenging and some that on face value seemed fairly innocuous.

One of the “easy” questions that really stuck in my mind was something to the effect of, “If you can spend less than 15 minutes on your appearance prior to coming to work and no one says that you are letting yourself go, take a step forward.” As a white male with hair somewhere between short and nonexistent, this is probably 10 more minutes than I really need to get ready for work. It was easy for me to confidently step forward. However, being one of only two or three males participating in the event, the silence of the remaining 17 females who were not moving at all was disconcerting. This particular silence stayed with me. I hadn’t stopped to think that women faced the same challenges as some of the groups I would normally associate with diversity and inclusion.

By the end of the event, I was the clear winner – by a lot! To give the massive extent of my win proper perspective, if the group had started together on the 50-yard line of Lambeau Field, by the end of the event I was easily in the end zone (if not somewhere in the tunnel leading to the locker room) while the next-closest partner was somewhere on the 30-yard line.

Worse yet, I was saddened to see one or two partners were stuck on what would have been considered somewhere between our starting point and the 45-yard line. I didn’t like seeing people I work alongside having obstacles to overcome every day that don’t impact me at all. At that moment I realized that it isn’t a level playing field – it’s not even close. This fact alone should make anyone who cares about others sad. 

I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this activity. In the end, my conclusion is that people shouldn’t be sad, embarrassed or ashamed about who they are or what real/perceived advantages they may or may not have. Ideally, everyone should be proud of who they are. What this exercise did teach me was that it is important for all of us to keep open minds and hearts, and to always remember to lift up others. There is always someone who is in a worse position that any one of us and helping them get to a point where they can be their best will ultimately benefit every one of us.

I hate that it took so many words to explain how this event made me feel. This is truly not intended to be about me. I wanted to share this story to encourage others who may not normally take the time to better understand the challenges faced by our partners or community members to take the time to at least try to understand where they are coming from. I would encourage anyone who has read this incredibly long story – if you have read this far I already know you are committed – to step outside their comfort zone. Take the time to join a business resource group or read an article to better understand what you can do to help, even if it is simply helping by understanding that we all begin on different starting blocks and we should take the time to help each other get a shot at running a fair race.