Understanding privilege - My experience in prison

A month ago Mark Suster and I hosted 75 colleagues for a full day at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County - also known as Lancaster. We did this as part of Defy Ventures, an entrepreneurship, employment, and character development training program for currently and formerly incarcerated men, women, and youth. It was a top 10 peak life experience for me - easily one of the most profound things I've experienced to date.

Mark wrote an incredibly detailed post about the experience. Rather than repeat it, I'm going to point you to his post How I Promise You One of the Most Meaningful Days of Your Life. In order to understand this post, you have to start there. So - go read it now - I'll be here when you get back.

If you want more views of the day, read all of the posts from LinkedIn's series on the day. Seven investors wrote about the same day that I'm writing about so you can share our experiences.

I'm going to focus on the part of the day where I finally began to understand the notion of privilege. It's worth starting with one of the definitions from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

" the advantage that wealthy and powerful people have over other people in a society."

The exercise lasted about an hour and was just before lunch. We'd had a lot of interaction with the EITs (we are volunteers, they are entrepreneurs in training or EITs) and were feeling as comfortable as one can feel in a level four maximum security prison. Catherine Hoke, the founder and CEO of Defy who ran the event, told us it was time to shift gears. As she described what we were going to do, she told us that it was imperative that we respond honestly. This wasn't going to be a legalistic exercise, but it was going to be uncomfortable. We then got the rules.

The exercise was called Walk the Line. There were two strips of tape running diagonally across the gymnasium we were in. They were a yard apart. The EITs lined up on one side. The volunteers lined up on the other. We then all took five steps back from the line. As Cat called out questions, if our answer was yes we walked to the line. If our answer was no, we retreated to our position five steps behind the line. We were instructed to look around and connect visually with empathy across the line. We were not to look at the ground or at Cat. We were allowed to shake hands across the line and hug on our side of the line. Cat ended by reminding us that the dominant emotion we should be carrying is empathy.

She then started asking us questions. I'm going to list them all below along with comments in italics on how I felt in response to some of them. I encourage you to read them out loud - it's the only way you will go slowly enough to really understand what was going on. Each question consumed about a minute as people walked to and back from the line, shook hands, looked at each other, hugged, and cried.

The Warm-up

1. I like hip-hop.
2. I work out 3 or more days per week.
3. I’m older than 20 years old. 25. 30. 40. 50. 60. 70.
4. I dropped out of high school.
5. I’ve earned a four-year college degree. Suddenly, I had a feeling about what was to come. Every EIT was away from the line. Almost every volunteer was on the line. This was an almost complete reversal from the previous question.
6. I’m a natural-born hustler. There were lots of smiles as both sides were generally on the line.
7. I’ve been self-employed or started my own business, legal or illegal. The smiles continued, with some chuckles interspersed, as a lot of people on both sides were on the line.
8. I’m committed to starting my own business. 100% of the EITs were now on the line.

About today

1. This is my first trip to prison. Very few EITs were on the line at this point, meaning many had been in prison before.
2. I felt at least a little nervous about coming to this event today. 100% of the volunteers were on the line. 100% of the EITs were on the line.
3. I regularly feel judged by others … for skin color or economic status. The volunteers take a step back, the EITs stay on the line.
4. I regularly judge others.
5. I regularly judge myself.
6. I came here to give of myself.
7. I came here to take or to receive for myself.
8. I can already feel myself comparing myself to others, or judging myself or others, right now. 100% of the people on both sides are on the line. Cat reminds us that we are answering honestly and thanks us for doing this.

Even if I don’t know all of you at this line …

1. I will to do my best to set aside my judgments and comparisons so I can connect with you.
2. If you become vulnerable in this exercise, I will show you respect and will do my part in creating a safe and reassuring environment for you.
3. If I see or sense pain or vulnerability, I will offer a hug to reassure you. Both sides of the line are full. I feel anxious all over - I'm sweating and staring ahead across the line, making eye contact in a way that I think is empathetic with the person directly across from me. He looks uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable.

My childhood

1. I grew up in poverty. Boom.
2. My parents paid for braces to straighten out my teeth. All the EITs are off the line.
3. I heard gunshots in my neighborhood. (wave for “a lot”) All the EITs are on the line. Several volunteers who I know are on the line.
4. I was suspended or expelled from school. Almost all the EITs are on the line. Several volunteers are on the line.
5. Violence took place in my home. Again, all the EITs are on the line.
6. Think of the age when you lost your innocence: I lost my innocence after age 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6. As the count down begins the EITs are on the line while the volunteers quickly back off the line. By age 6 there are still a startling number of EITs on the line. I have tears in my eyes as a wave of emotion comes over me. I don't feel like I lost my innocence until sometime in my early 20s. I can't imagine self-identifying with losing it younger than age 6.

My Family

1. For most of my childhood, I was raised with both of my biological parents in the same house.
2. At least one of my parents wasn’t exactly a positive role model for me – or wasn’t even around.
3. I was born out of wedlock. I was born to a teenage mother.
4. At least one of my parents abused drugs or alcohol.
5. I suffered through the loss of an immediate family member before the age of 18.
6. My mother or father has been to jail or prison. At this point, the patterns are clear. The EIT directly across me stays on the line through all these questions but the first one. I've been off the line since the first one. Now he has tears in his eyes. I keep his gaze while thinking how fortunate I am to have had my childhood and not his.

My beliefs and values before the age of 18

1. I learned that I couldn’t trust anyone. It continues. Now I have tears again. He smiles at me. He breaks my gaze and looks at the person next to me. I use this moment to look up and down the line on my side. Very few volunteers are on the line. One who I know is on the line and is crying openly. But we continue.
2. I learned that it’s better to keep my mouth shut and my feelings to myself.
3. The way I was living, I thought there was a good chance I wouldn’t make it to age 21. There are hugs on our side of the line as we process what is going on. At this point the word privilege isn't being used (nor does it get used openly throughout the day), but the idea of privilege and how it impacts one's belief system and values is what is front of mind for me.

Past Criminal life - Cat reminds us that Defy doesn't work with criminals, but with people who have committed crimes in their past.

1. I’ve been arrested.
2. I’ve done criminal things for which I could’ve been arrested, but didn’t. (drunk driving, weed) A series of experiences run through my mind as I think of how different things could be for me if I hadn't grown up white and middle-class in the suburbs of North Dallas.
3. I’ve committed a violent offense (even if I wasn’t convicted). Cat stays on this for a while. As all the EITs are on the line, a few volunteers join them. Cat isn't satisfied and calls out "a bar fight is a violent offense" and a dozen volunteers sheepishly walk to the line. Then a few more do. And we sit with this one for a while.
4. I’ve been convicted of murder.
5. I was sentenced before 18 years of age. I'm ready for this experience to end. Between 25% and 50% of the EITs are on the line. All of them are black. Another switch just flipped in my brain.
6. I’ve spent more than two years of my life in behind bars. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12 (go all the way up). Guys that look like they are in their 30s are hanging on the line through 20 years. We keep going. 30 years. 40 years.
7. I’m a lifer. Yup - there are a bunch of EITs on the line.
8. I’ve actually been shot or stabbed.

 Loss

1. I’ve lost someone I loved to gang violence.
2. I’ve lost someone I’ve loved to AIDS. I was one of the few volunteers on the line for this one. I didn't expect this question at all and it sent me back to my late 20s when my fraternity big brother died of AIDS. I remembered the dream I had on an airplane just before he died but about a week after he called me to say goodbye. I kept looking ahead at the EITs on the line.
3. I’ve lost one or both of my parents.
4. I’ve lost a child.
5. I haven’t properly grieved some of my losses.
6. I have suffered, or currently suffer, from depression. A lot of volunteers are on the line along with me. I feel a sense of relief that the stigma associated with depression might be lifting, but then I remember the context I'm in.
7. I could use a hug right now. Everyone walks to both sides of the line. Hugs ensue.

 My children

1. I’m a father (or mother).
2. My lifestyle caused me to miss out on valuable years in my child’s life.

If you could see inside my brain …

1. If you knew every one of my dirty secrets, and knew the real me, you wouldn’t love me.
2. I feel ashamed of my past.
3. I feel inadequate, at least in some ways.
4. Sometimes my feelings of inadequacy lead me to overcompensate in some areas, or act out.
5. There are some things I haven’t forgiven myself for, and may never forgive myself. A number of volunteers walk to the line, including me. I thinking of a specific thing that has happened to me as an adult. It's something I don't talk publicly about because I haven't yet resolved it myself. Or, more honestly, I haven't forgiven myself for letting it happen to me. I feel ashamed against the backdrop of everything else.
6. There are some people I haven’t forgiven for hurting me.
7. Not forgiving others or myself is hurting me to this day.
8. I am kind to myself; I do a great job of nurturing myself and taking care of my own needs.

My growth

1. I’m on a journey of personal transformation. Almost all of the EITs are on the line. People are starting to smile again.
2. Others look at me as a role model. I’m aware of the importance of my influence.
3. I might not be able to explain it, but even though I’ve been revealing difficult things and have made myself vulnerable in this exercise, right here, right now, I feel safe, accepted and loved.
4. I already love Defy!! Everyone on both sides is on the line.

I know that words above doesn't do the experience justice, but at the end of the hour I was emotionally exhausted. There were at least 25 of the EITs who I had made eye contact with that I wanted to go talk to. There were an equal number of volunteers who I wanted to talk to. Instead, I tried to relax a little. I grabbed on to one word - privilege - that I knew represented a fundamental difference between most of the people on either side of the line.

While it's easy to talk about privilege it's hard to really understand it. It's even harder to experience it if you are the one with privilege. I thought I understood it, but I didn't. As I let the next five minutes quietly unfold in my mind, I decided that I was no longer going to assume I really understood privilege. Instead, I was going to engage with society in a way to help those without privilege have a better opportunity. Through that, I'd understand it better, have empathy for others who didn't have privilege, and channel my actions as a human into making the world better from that frame of reference.

I've committed to go to prison with Defy four times in 2017. If you want to join me as a volunteer on one of the trips, just reach out. I can promise you a life changing day.

Read all the posts in this series here