This is Your Nation on White Privilege

[El Machetero]

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”


White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.


White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.


And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…


White privilege is, in short, the problem.

[jahluv]

great post EL...

[AuntKeke]

Yes! Perfect!!

Thank you.

[Obsidian]

"White privilege is, in short, the problem."

And only they can fix it or burn to death from it when it crashes. Unfortunately we all are dragged along for the bumpy ride. Whether we take off our seat belt and jump out to survive is up to us - as in do our own thing independent from their views and opinions. I don't think that is idealistic.

[BlaqJeff]

Try showing this to someone who benefits from White Privilege and they'll tell you to "get over it, slavery was 400 years ago" which is another aspect of white privilege- the right to ignore your history and your own shortcomings.

[ibrother]

Although I don't trust polls, the fact that the article was written should give one pause.

Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama

[Obsidian]

^^^

Right to ignore your own history ... unless you are white Germans. White people made them the scapegoats even though they themselves were just as bad to each other, and by each other I mean European Jewish people (the only difference being a circumcision really). So they live with their country's past sins everyday on the History channel. Alas, white Americans can casually tell us "slavery's over, so get over it." But would not think twice to tell a Jewish person "the holocaust's over, get over it." Just to put things into perspective.

[BlaqJeff]

ibrother said:

Although I don't trust polls, the fact that the article was written should give one pause.
Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama

And yet, Obama leads in the electoral polling. Of course the only poll that counts is the one in November.

[El Machetero]

The following is an exchange between myself and a white member of my Facebook group who took offence to my sending out this article:

Him: Fuck Tim Wise,

Fuck people that call people white or black.

My neck only turns red when I'm slaving away in the hot summer sun.

Respect.

Me: Did you actually read the article? Or are you just reacting for the sake of it?

Personally, i say Fuck injustice, Fuck oppression, Fuck supremacy, Fuck privilege, Fuck denial of reality and Fuck shooting the messenger.

But that's just me.


Him: yeah man,

I love most of what you send... just not this

I get so bored of being lumped in with the Bush's and McCain's and Confederates and dutch apartied etc... not my buzz, nor my forefathers

again, respect

Me: You probably lump yourself in more with them then anyone else does. And no disrespect brother, but nobody's gonna stop having these discussions just to make you feel more comfortable.

If we're serious about resolving problems such as systemic racism and white supremacy (which have both destroyed more lives than AIDS, drunk driving and gun violence combined), we need to discuss them in real, raw, brutally honest and plain terms. Wishing shit away don't make it go away.

Respect.

[BlaqJeff]

I guess if I was white and I spent my life trying to be a good non-racist white person, reading that article would be like getting a kick in the gut.It's like Damn! What else does a white person have to do to be not racist?
It just goes to show how deep and systemic it really is and like you said El, wishing it away doesn't make it go away.

[El Machetero]

It's like, for fuck's sakes......i come from a country (Chile) and culture (Latino) where you can have a face like a iguana, but if you're blond haired and blue eyed, you're automatically beautiful. You can be a law student at the top of your class, but if you look too indigenous or have a Mapuche last name, nobody wants to hire you because they "worry you may not be a good fit", and we all live in countries (U$A/Canada) and a culture (global toxic late capitalist pre-apocalyptic white supremacist neo-colonialism) where at the same time as you have teachers, doctors and lawyers from countries like Ghana, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda and El Salvador driving cabs and delivering pizzas because their credentials are not recognized here, but yet you can be the least educated, least competent, most cowardly and dysfunctional piece of shit, but if you're white and come from a "good family", everybody not only has a fucking excuse and justification, but you can become the damn president of the nation.

i'm not even white, but i battle and struggle with questions of race and privilege every single day of my life, simply because i refuse to be part of the problem. And then this white boy thinks that because he knows his Hip-Hop and thinks he's down certain ways, i'll "see the light" and stop mentioning race and stop having certain discussions so he don't leave my fucking Facebook group?!? He can eat a dick.

Sorry, i'm a little bitter and disgusted right now.

[Obsidian]

^^^^

People don't want to live with ills they themselves didn't commit or feel that they themselves aren't perpetuating. I think someone who is down who is white should fully embrace what their ancestors did, even if their ancestors played no direct part. Why? Because it has become a collective. Europe as a whole subcontinent made a mess of our ancestors and ensured that their decedents continue to reap the benefits of their rape and pillaging centuries ago. Whole modern society's are founded upon our bones and the bones of other groups of people who are subjugated to this day by a system designed based on their subjugation. We were never meant to prosper or make the gains we have made.

We were never meant to have the voice we have or the power we have. We were just meant to toil and suffer as a mute and brute that kept the wheels greased. So someone white who is down should realize that they will always benefit from the system and will always be lumped together with those who are not down. They have to realize that they will always be the target of ill feelings from those groups of people with whom they are down, either directly or indirectly. They shouldn't get upset by that because people have just cause for their anger and you have just cause to bear it without getting upset or threatened because you have nothing to be threatened about (if you are down). If you're down, you should be about letting the anger slide and using your privilege to help those people with whom you're down by doing the only thing you can do - educating yourself and educating your own people because ultimately, you are the only one who can really get through their wall of ignorance and blindness.

My opinion any how.

It's like, owning up to perpetuating child slave labor if you live in this society. Why? Because we all benefit from their suffering so we should all own up to our part in it, even if we ourselves only buy things that aren't made by child slave labor. Get my drift?

[Janus Spills]

excellent! It needed to be said. But I don't expect white people to ever understand. ever..