How do you put a price on the double-take of a clerk at the welfare office who decides you might not be like those other trifling women in the waiting room and provides an extra bit of information about completing a form that you would not have known to ask about? What is the retail value of a school principal who defers a bit more to your child because your mother’s presentation of self signals that she might unleash the bureaucratic savvy of middle class parents to advocate for her child?
For anyone who has heard about the “Shopping at Barneys While Black” stories that popped up in recent weeks, this post by Tressie McMillan Cottom is essential reading.