A recent Twitter thread circulating broadly remarkably suggests that Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager who famously chronicled her terrifying two-year experience as a child hidden from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam during the Second World War, was somehow the beneficiary of white privilege. Anne ultimately was captured and sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp where she died a short time before the camp was liberated. She was yet another victim of the Nazi goal to exterminate all Jews.

The Twitter narrative that her experience could somehow be equated with privilege of any kind is so insulting that it is hard to believe that it is not a sick joke. It is argued that she must have had privilege by definition because she was white and her father was not poor. The truth is rather she had the privilege to die a lonely painful death.

I am a child of Holocaust survivors, a mother who survived the horrors and the death march of Auschwitz and a father who also somehow survived Buchenwald. Very few family members survived the brutal atrocities of the war. I am alive only because the infamous Dr. Mengele couldn’t draw blood from my mother and thus rejected her for sterilization experiments. Yet my family and those that perished would still be considered as having a history of white privilege simply because of their skin colour. Indeed the fact is that “white” Jews have faced centuries of religious racism, oppression, restrictions to work and pray, crusades, pogroms, and finally the Holocaust.

The concept of privilege benefitting white people has been postulated for decades. Peggy McIntosh, an American academic, wrote a paper in 1988 about white privilege and male privilege and detailed many instances where being white and/or male conveyed an undeserved and unearned advantage.^{1White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack https://psychology.umbc.edu/files/2016/10/White-Privilege_McIntosh-1989.pdf} While the concept is worth a dialogue, the Twitter dialogue about Anne Frank grossly distorts the concept.

Discrimination and trauma aren’t limited to people of colour. The Russian atrocities in Ukraine are mainly being committed against white people. Should we also consider that despite their suffering, they also have white privilege? The same would be said of the millions of innocents killed by Stalin in the Second World War.

The world is a dangerous place full of good, but also much evil. Slavery and the subjugation of people of colour are a stain on our history. Racism and persecution based on skin colour, while improving, still persists and is intolerable. I fully accept that I don’t know what it is like to be afraid of being targeted by the police and others because of skin colour. I do understand, as many others do not, the historic persecution of Jews. Irving Abella and Harold Troper in their book None Is Too Many^{2None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 https://utorontopress.com/9781487516529/none-is-too-many/} describe in chilling detail the horrible story of how enlightened Canada, a country of immigrants who, because of anti-semitism, denied aid and entry to Jewish refugees. Most of them were forced to return to Europe and perished in the war.^{3“​On 7 June 1939, 907 Jewish refugees aboard the MS St. Louis were denied entry to Canada. The ship returned its passengers to safe harbour in four European countries. Sadly, 254 of its passengers later perished in the Holocaust.” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ms-st-louis}

It is a mockery of common sense to believe that while certain white people can suffer great injustice and even extermination, they somehow can still be considered to have benefited from white privilege.

Discrimination in any form is abhorrent and contrary to the values of most Canadians and Americans. It can be based on colour, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. All of it is wrong and needs universal condemnation. A shooting at a church, mosque, or synagogue needs to be equally condemned by people of all religions.

There is a great deal of privilege in the world, most of which isn’t restricted to whiteness. There is an established hierarchy in most societies that tries to retain control and resists change. It isn’t simply about whiteness, rather it is more about class and status in most societies.

The caste system in India, a social hierarchy that has existed for over 3,000 years, categorizes people into different levels of respect and opportunity.^{4What is India’s caste system? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616} Brahmins are priests and to be revered. Kshatriyas are rulers and warriors, Vaishyas are skilled workers, Shudras are unskilled workers, and Dalits are untouchables, relegated to the lowest opportunity. While social discrimination has lessened, it still influences opportunities including whom you are allowed to marry.

Communist China, despite promoting equality for all, has a highly structured, elitist hierarchy that determines opportunity and wealth based on membership in the Communist Party.

Saudi Arabia, another non-white country has a rigid hierarchy based on social stature, religion, and gender.

Many African countries have societal hierarchies, somewhat similar to a caste system, based on social groupings, inherited opportunities, and language that determines occupation, wealth, and social status.

The fact that inequality is widespread doesn’t mean that we have to accept the status quo. Privilege, white or otherwise, reflects inequality of opportunity and undeserved benefit. Centuries of experience have taught us that while the playing field can be greatly levelled by education, drive, hard work, and intelligence, some will have to strive harder than others. It is, however, all too easy to adopt a victim mentality and only blame others rather than explore how your own skills and effort can improve your life.

Warren Buffett is one of the world’s richest men with a net worth of about $100 billion. His fortune wasn’t inherited. It came from hard work, entrepreneurship, and a strong belief in the value of investing. He is recognized as having a very high level of integrity, ingenuity, and practical intelligence. He plans on donating 99 percent of his fortune to charity. Is his privilege in society due to him being white, or just being smarter than most other people? A lot of privilege is simply earned.

For those who focus only on being behind because of the privilege of others, rather than also due to their own failings, there is an important lesson yet to be learned. If you can’t find compassion for others that have suffered, why would you expect that others will find compassion for your suffering? If you really believe that Anne Frank and the many others who suffered greatly at the hands of those who are evil died with white privilege, then I can only feel tremendous sadness for your ignorance. You will never recognize nor take full advantage of the opportunities that you have. You will not find the allies that could help you achieve your potential and your goals.

Privilege sometimes gives some unscrupulous people the licence to do some things that they don’t deserve to do and that we abhor. Russian oligarchs have a licence to steal. Saudi Princes have a licence to kill without recrimination. Sadly we have to also accept that twits can have a licence to tweet since free speech isn’t free of ignorance and disgust.

I organize an informal wine club for a group of my friends and neighbours. It’s a buyers club. We pool our money together and buy a bunch of cases, mostly directly from importers or local producers. Then we split them up between us, so we get a bit of a sampler: two bottles each of six different wines. If we like something, then we can go buy more of it.

When choosing the wines, the objective is to arrive at an average cost of $25 a bottle, or $300 a case. If we were each to buy six cases of the wines, it would cost us $1,800. A wine bill of nearly two grand is a pretty big investment to sink for the purpose of trying to find a few everyday wines that are ready to drink. (Yes, I know: $25 is a bit steep for “every day”, but that’s the average cost, and post-COVID inflation has arrived at the wine world too.) We are spreading our risk as we expand our palates.

The club is also, of course, an extension of my day job as a wine writer and journalist. The difference between wine pros and amateurs is access; we just get put in front of a lot more wine, whether we’re sent samples to our homes or out at tastings, trade shows, and other events. It’s a chance to put my money where my mouth is when I find a good wine at a great price. The newsletter is also becoming a media channel of its own, and anyone who likes can follow along with what we’re buying at our website, mjwinebox.com. 

Because of holidays and recent changes in the way the Liquor Control Board of Ontario handles the kinds of wines at that price point, this month’s wine box was a bit late to be sourced and assembled. It didn’t drop, as the kids say, until the end of July. The members of the club are fortunate enough to all live in a leafy neighbourhood in the old city of Toronto, and we all have a backyard, a barbecue, and a table to sit down at outdoors. The challenge for the mid-summer selection was to find wines that might complement grilled foods eaten al fresco on a warm evening.

Finding the whites was easy enough: a crisp Bellone from Anzio in Lazio, to the southeast of Rome, and a surprisingly racy organic Chenin Blanc from the Languedoc in the Southwest of France. Mediterranean winemakers are particularly good at making whites that beat the heat; of necessity, I imagine. Those selections were really just about the quality-to-price ratio.

In the warm months, the club buys a rosé. As organizer and chief wine bore, this month I played the bully and imposed my predilection for fuller-bodied rosé in the style of Tavel, the appellation and town on the right bank of the Southern Rhône valley that’s famous for its deep coloured and structured rosé. I like all the rosés, but a lot of the pale ones these days see so little skin contact that they taste to me more like white wine, and I wanted some fruit to chew on.

The wine we bought was from Niagara, the 2021 Hidden Bench Nocturne Rosé, which is made by the old-fashioned saignée method, where a measure of wine is “bled” off of red wine must^{1“The combined juice, skins and seeds is known as must. Some winemakers cool the must for a day or two, a process called cold soaking, to extract color and flavor compounds from the skins before any alcohol is created.” https://www.winemag.com/2019/10/08/how-red-wine-is-made/} while it sits on its skins in the fermentation tank. The result, at least for this wine, is closer to a light red than a Pinot Grigio. Actually, the dominant grape in it is Grigio’s red cousin Pinot Noir. Bone dry, it’s big on red fruit notes: strawberry, cherry, and, in full cool climate character, cranberry. And it has just enough tannic structure to pull it through dinner, but not so much that one can’t enjoy the marinade on the BBQ chicken.

The American wine and drinks writer Jason Lewis recently published a post on his website, everydaydrinking.com, entitled “Are Food & Drink Pairings Ridiculous?”.^{2Are Food & Drink Pairings Ridiculous? https://www.everydaydrinking.com/p/food-and-drink-pairings-are-ridiculous} Lewis convincingly proves they are, except when they’re not, concluding: “Pairings are no more bullshit than any other of life’s pleasures.” I hold this sentiment when it comes to drinking red wine in the summer heat.

It stands to reason that since many if not most of the world’s big, powerful red wines come from warm places like the Mediterranean Basin, South America, South Africa, Australia, and California, they ought to do just fine on a Dog Day. Indeed they do, and yet they’re also good at warming up the soul on a cold, dark January night.

My inclination is towards lighter reds on hot nights, and one of the reds we bought for the club is made from a grape that makes surprisingly refreshing, almost crisp, red wines from a very hot place. Frappato comes from Vittoria in the Southeast of Sicily, roughly sharing its latitude with the North African city of Tunis. It was traditionally grown as a blender, to lighten up heavier wines made from the better-known Her d’Avolo. It’s only in the last few decades that it’s come into its own.

The 2019 Frappato from the Vittoria outpost of the Planeta winery, which famously makes wine in every corner of the island, is a textbook example of a light, aromatic red. I like to serve it slightly chilled after half an hour or so in the fridge. I suppose, if the Nocturne rosé is an aperitif wine that can carry through to dinner, then the Planeta Frappato is a dinner wine that can be happily begun before it. There is good dark red fruit, but also a bit of white pepper and a floral aroma I associate with hibiscus; a lot going on in a very quaffable wine. One could do worse than pairing it with grilled lamb chops or a selection of garden vegetables.

The other two reds we selected, a “Super Tuscan” and a Chinon from the Loire Valley, will get their own treatment in upcoming columns, focused on different themes.

Websites for the people and things mentioned above, including the shameless plug for the one I publish when I am not writing for The Hub, are:

https://www.mjwinebox.com/

https://hiddenbench.com/

https://www.everydaydrinking.com/

https://planeta.it/