The Reproduction of Race Privilege

From my sophomore year to the end of my senior year in high school I worked at two different country clubs. First, I worked at Old Hickory Golf Course as a server for banquets and weddings. After realizing how much I hated dealing with food and working till 1:30am I decided to quit and then began working in the bag room at Whitmoor Country Club. Here, I cleaned and parked all of the golf carts, picked the golf balls from the range at night and washed the members clubs before storing them in the bag room. I soon found out there were also long hour shifts as well as similar snobby club members. However, I enjoyed working outside and the fact that it was a seasonal job so I decided to stay until I left for college. Once I came to college and found myself attending classes with a diverse range of students. This new type of environment helped me realize the lack of racial diversity which existed at both of my previous country club jobs. Looking back, not once do I remember working with a black male or female nor do I remember seeing one working in a higher held job such as an office position. In fact the only people I remember seeing at the staff meetings were white men and women, not a single minority. The all-white environments I witnessed at the country clubs reminded me of the primarily white employee environment which existed at Diamond Toys from Inside Toyland. Just as Diamond Toys was located in a higher-end of town so were both of these country clubs. Their customers were also mainly middle and upper class and mostly white. As Williams observed at Diamond Toys, I too could easily notice the constant reproduction of race privileges. The HR representatives who conducted interviews and hired the employees at both country clubs were aware of the racial make-up therefore the reps saw whiteness as the norm; it was the same light the club members saw whiteness as. So who were the HR reps going to hire to help serve the needs of the white members? White employees. Once again white privilege is reproduced.  Unfortunately, I live nearby Whitmoor and occasionally play tennis on their courts. Even after four years, I still have yet to see a black employee working on the country club property. Some things will never change I guess.