One of the great privileges of being a white guy is that nobody looks at your actions and uses them to condemn all white guys. I don't have to represent anybody but myself.
Fact is, I'm not sure I can imagine how it would feel, what I would do differently, what would change in my life if I were representing somebody else. For a white guy, that sort of thing is hard to fathom-- what would be like if people were on our case for making the team look bad, letting down the side, being just one of Those.
It's not that I don't have any concept of how to devote myself to causes or identities larger than my own-- from my work to my marriage to my home town, I think I get that. But I'm pretty sure there's a substantive difference in being able to pick those as opposed to having them thrust upon me by birth. I'm free to choose my affiliations, or unchoose them, as I see fit.
I think the blind spot that creates for privileged people is the belief that people are free to choose their own identity, that who we are is something we get to decide for ourselves. "We must lot set of circumstances define us" is one of those things said only by people who have never lived in overwhelming circumstances. If you're born into poverty or the wrong race in a racist place, simply redefining yourself is not that simple. This blind spot can lead to the notion that people who don't overcome their circumstances just aren't trying very hard. Put another way, we aren't going to look down at you because you ARE poor, but because you STAY poor. As one well-privileged commentator said (on the Daily Show), if you don't like being poor, well, just stop!
Sometimes people's circumstances hem them, even overwhelm them. Instead of condemning them for not being changing themselves, we might offer them some help, or at least some empathy.
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