White Expectations
I work for, and volunteer at, an American Indian Education Program; a program that provides free services to Native American and First Nation students and adults. The focus and priority is on Indigenous children. One of the services we provide is free craft classes and this weekend we are doing silversmithing, making silver rings with turquoise pendants, and because this craft requires the use of a torch we have restricted the number of students to the first 10 that show up. We feel comfortable with allowing ten in, but anymore and we worry that it could become dangerous. Now, normally we have no restrictions on capacity, so we announced this one-time change in our newsletter, and someone is complaining about this. She wants not only her children, who are mixed race Native and white to have a reserved spot but she also wants the remaining spots open for her extended family. Her extended family are not students, and they are white and not Native. The boss tells her we cannot reserve spaces because it would not be fair. She threw a fit and said “remember the time I volunteered! My family deserves this because I volunteered!”. She volunteered once, and even if she volunteered her time everyday (like some of us) it still would not be fair to reserve a space for her family and her family that are not a part of our program. I see this so often, someone does something nice (once) and expects to be given special privilege over everyone else. She expects her white family members (who are adults over the age of 40) to get a spot over Native children. We explained that she will not be getting her way and now she says she won’t help us teach the class if her family can’t go. I must add that we have been training to be teachers for this class for a week, under a master teacher. She promised to help with this class and now that her family won’t get a reserved spot she backs out.
And you may argue “well, that is just one white person not all white people!” and to that I could say yes, she is one individual; however, I have seen this happen time and time again. It would seem that it is part of their culture to assume that they are the most important in any situation. Not all, but far too many.