White Guilt and Privilege in Underground Airlines Anonymous College

Underground Airlines traverses many social and political climates, namely, the tension that exists between privileged whites and oppressed blacks. While Ben Winters' novel is set in an imagined future where institutionalized slavery still thrives in the South, the novel points toward the systematic oppression that persists in our contemporary society. A complex issue that Underground Airlines subtly addresses is that of white guilt and how it relates to systematic oppression and privilege.

The issue of white guilt and privilege is recurring throughout Underground Airlines, and no white character is free from its influence, although many are unaware. Winters expertly addresses this issue through an array of interactions with different types of white characters. What is vital to take away from Winters’ novel is that while not all of his white characters are plainly racist or plainly guilty in a “white” way, all white characters within the novel benefit socially and politically from their white status. The benefit of whiteness is demonstrated with nuance. For example, Victor’s interaction with the white character Mr. Newell is drastically different from his interactions with Martha throughout the novel. Mr. Newell, assuming Victor...