Just Us: An American Conversation

“That I was among them in airport lounges and in first-class cabins spoke in part to my own relative economic privilege, but the price of my ticket, of course, does not translate into social capital.” 

Rankine reflects on her experience as a business-class traveler—an avenue usually afforded to the white men who typically surround her. Rankine draws attention to the singularity of her experience by juxtaposing her “I” with “them.” Her access to these comforts is due only to money. In addressing the expense, she references the James Baldwin essay, “The Price of the Ticket,” which becomes a double-entendre here, both the literal price of an airline ticket and the metaphorical price of entry into white privilege. Rankine is careful to note that she has not been permitted the latter. The way in which she is perceived in business and first class reinforces her knowledge that no amount of money can ever permit her entry into whiteness or the privileges that are reserved for those who are white.

“They couldn’t know what it’s like to be me, though who I am is in part a response to who they are, and I didn’t really believe I understood them, even as they determined so much of what was possible in my life and in the lives of others.” 

Rankine continues to reflect on her social position in relation to that of the white men who wait in airport business lounges with her. Her subjectivity is invisible to them, but the way in which she is understood socially is relative to their positions as privileged members of society, which is predicated on her exclusion from this privilege. Still, Rankine is determined to understand them personally and to understand how their privilege relates to their personal lives.