Privileged Boundary Pushing

 

It was cold and raining last night, but 20 of us showed up on a busy corner in South Asheville just outside of Biltmore Park to hold our bi-weekly Reject Raytheon vigil. We chose this location because Biltmore Park, a private residential and commercial enclave, is home to the offices of Biltmore Farms LLC, the corporation that donated the 100 acres for the Pratt & Whitney plant. 

A few of us walked from the corner into the private community with some signage intending to deliver a letter to Jack Cecil, the CEO. We weren't sure if we'd be confronted for trespassing and evicted or not. I had called the Asheville Police Department, which has jurisdiction there, a week or so ago. They told me that if they got a complaint, they would ask us to leave and if we did, that would be that, no arrest. But in a kind of aside, they also said that the sidewalks are public access and that as long as there was no obstruction, we should be okay. So we figured we'd try our luck walking in and see what happened. We weren't interested, at this time, in being arrested.

Almost as soon as we stepped off, a police car with blue lights flashing came slowly towards us from town, made a U-turn and then slowly passed us and went back. They were ready for us. We stayed on the sidewalk and went to the Town Square where the Biltmore Farms LLC offices are. There were 2 police cars waiting for us there and as we approached the office building, an officer came up to greet us. She was friendly and I told her we were just going to deliver a letter, walk around town a little, then leave. She said that worked for her, as long as we stayed on the sidewalk. Ah, that's the answer we were looking for.

So we went up to the building and there we were confronted by a private security guard on the outside and couple more on the inside of the glass front doors. The guy outside, kind of gruff, told me that the building was closed. I said we had a letter for Jack Cecil. He said he would deliver it for us. So I handed it to him and asked him with smiling eyes (I was wearing a mask) if he promised to deliver it. He seemed rattled by my comical question and stammered that yes, he would, not to worry.

And so off we went on our pleasant little excursion around the commercial square in the rain with our signs. The police officer thanked us for being respectful and it was all very civilized. As we walked along, followed slowly by a police car, we handed out a couple of flyers and chatted with a couple of people. Not much was going on because of the weather.

On our way back out of town, I chatted with one of our group about coming back when the weather was good and standing on the sidewalk right outside of REI with our banner and flyers. Now that we knew we could do this without risking arrest. I felt that this would be a good location because (1) our banner (in the picture above) is an actual photograph of the deforestation happening on the nearby land where the plant site is, and (2) people coming to REI are nature lovers who will be properly appalled by what they see.

But my friend had a caution about doing much demonstrating here in Biltmore Park, which is a white suburban place with plenty of police protection. Her concern was about the people of color and also those with LGBT identities and how they might feel in this environment. Very likely unsafe. It drove home to me that our stroll through Biltmore Park was so easy because we were all white. How would this have gone down had we been black? I think we all know that answer.

It's something to be mindful about. We who have white privilege need to be conscious of it and use it in our cause, but we also need to include everyone amongst us - BIPOC people especially - in deciding how we go about that. Our walk into town was maybe pushing a boundary a little, but at the same time, we could do that because of our white privilege. Privileged boundary pushing. It has its place, but there are also other places to consider.