White is Just the Beginning: Privileges Revealed in the Most Unprivileged of Places

(As the article appeared in the new issue of Gay and Lesbian Review

THE TERM “PRIVILEGE” — white or otherwise — was not really in vogue when I spent nine months in the California prison system in 2004. And it certainly wasn’t a word that any of the men I served time with would have ever thought to apply to their experience while behind bars, or, for that matter, to any other part of their lives. In fact, it wasn’t…