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Since going on a Civil Rights Tour throughout the American South, I often ask myself, ‘Is my worldview implicitly built upon the presuppositions of a white person?’ This internal wrestling is inspired by one of the most impactful quotes I came across in college. It was written by historian Herbert Butterfield. He observed, “[T]he blindest of all blind are those who are unable to examine their own presuppositions, and blithely imagine therefore that they do not possess any.” Google defines a presupposition as “a thing tacitly assumed beforehand at the beginning of a line of argument or course of action.” Presuppositions are the actual thing most arguments are about even though they’re rarely acknowledged or discussed. It’s just a lot easier and more comfortable to skim along the surface with what’s visible rather than do the hard, uncomfortable work of digging deep into our unseen assumptions and expectations. That’s why I’ve adopted a personal policy that I call The Dwight Schrute Rule for Acknowledging White Presuppositions. In one episode of The Office, Dwight says to the camera, “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, I do not do that thing.” In a similar way, whenever I’m about to think something that’s even tangentially related to matters of race and ethnicity, I think, ‘Would only a white person think that?’ And if they would, I do not think that thing.
