Book Review

by Ms. Pamela Hayes-Bohanan, Associate Librarian

 

Rothenberg, Paula. Invisible Privilege: A Memoir about Race, Class, and Gender. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2000. Print.

Rothenberg's story is a brave look at her own life, in which she examines her role in perpetuating racism, sexism and white privilege. She both benefits and suffers from these institutions. Beginning with her childhood as the oldest child of an Orthodox Jewish family in New York City, she recognizes that had her younger brother not been born she might have experienced even more privileges as the only-child of relatively wealthy parents.  However, like so many girls of her generation, she knew that her brother would go to the best schools but for her a school with a biology lab that pulled double duty as a cafeteria trash receptacle would serve, after all, she would only need to marry well. She feels no remorse when she gains acceptance into a prestigious science program for teenagers only through cheating, knowing that she did not have the privileges afforded to the young man from whom she copied her work. She understands the privilege of her family's wealth and connections when it helps her to gain acceptance to college. Attending college, and graduate school, in the turbulent sixties she finds that some of her instructors show downright contempt for women students, while another sexually assaults her and explains that she would need to spend more time with him if she were to ever complete her dissertation. Having learned early on not to tell anyone when faced with sexual predation she never completes her doctorate, although she does become a college professor, and a recognized scholar on race and gender. She raises a family and buys a home in a mixed race neighborhood in New Jersey and sends her children to public school in hopes that her own children will learn to be more accepting of differences than she was taught. She is disillusioned with neighbors who promise not to sell their homes to Black families, and is disappointed when a budding friendship between her daughter and an African-American child dissolves when they have trouble bridging a cultural divide.

This is a challenging book. Rothenberg recognizes her use of racist attitudes and language, especially, in the early chapters, and explains that she oscillates between naïve narrator, who does not understand her privilege, and a person with some hindsight. Still, some of the descriptions and language are jarring. Readers may find themselves exploring some difficult chapters of their own lives while reading this thought-provoking memoir.

Last Modified: May 31, 2011