Sugar420

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

September, 14 2008
By Wise, Tim

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.

Dozer McDozer

at the core none of that has much to do with skin

its not them being white that matters

__________________
Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance. - Albert Einstein

Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend - i'll get his name once i get book back

Sugar420

mind sharing some insight dozer?
are you saying you dont believe there is any such thing as white privilege, or you have some other explanation for that list?
just wondering

Roach

"White Privilage" is a label intended to incite resentment.


Fortunately ,It doesn't exist in an plutocracy like America.

__________________

לזיין את הקופים

Dozer McDozer

err well yeah its white people that are the ones doing that, but well its simply a label i guess

i dunno fuck white people

/is white

__________________
Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance. - Albert Einstein

Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend - i'll get his name once i get book back

kamikazi89

i'm torn between avoiding the topic all together and meaning to pick up this book next trip to the Library

__________________
katie west is the best

John F. Kerry

i dunno veda, how much longer is reverse rascism necesary? i mean in my day to day life the black people and the white people are all treated equally and actually i dont recall ever seeing a real example of rascism in my life...

so obviously i live in a sheltered world, but the black people i know live in that world too.


so i tend to believe like someone said that its much more about bias and prejudice between classes of people than it is about races...

poor white people are looked down upon just like poor black people,

rich and elloquent black people are looked up upon, (like our president) and so are rich whites...

so maybe thats not right or its got its own problems but its not just plain 1950s racism anymore.

__________________
Nasa under Obama

John F. Kerry

"* 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."
"


and just to illusrate the hypocrisy of this observation, firstly obama was running for president with no excutive experience, thus to say he has executive experience and was tested in that capacity is simply innacurate not rascist.


and sarah palin, altho running for vp not pres did have executive experience as the governor of alaska, so while i thing shes a dingbat moron i really dont see how u can possibly chalk this up to racism or white priveledge. because most of the white media laughed at palins "experience" and didnt even question that obama was qualified,

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Nasa under Obama

stoneric

As SSD pointed out a few years back, there is no such thing as reverse racism.

stoneric

True. It's much more subtle now.

Mafoo

its called being a member of the elite. skin color has a bit to do with it but i dont think its all about being white vs minority. its about money and affluence and politics.

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

Sugar420

ya its deff more about class than race
however racism and white privilege still exist no matter how much people want to deny it

when i first posted this i kinda regretted it because i didnt want it to turn into an anti-white-folks thread. now its just history

wellfleation

But I bet if you ask the black people in your area they would have a totally opposite view. Colored glasses, no pun intended.

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FIGHTPOWER

John F. Kerry

^ well obama talks like a "white person" so to speak, so maybe its the class that dictates the talk and we should rename it "well spoken person" . and i mean not simply in tone but in content as well, you dont hear obama talking about reparations and racism all that much, i dont think its because he doesnt think it was bad at one point, but rather because growing up in nyc in the 1980s he didnt really experience all that bad of treatment as a columbia student and harvard law student, so he sees that its far more about your personal choices and ability to work than your skin color these days.


i was thinking about this the other day, how obama talks like martin luther king a lot, and how rev al and jesse jackson dont, i think thats why obama became president where those guys kept their black leader persona. martin luther king might have been president if he had lived

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Nasa under Obama

Flamingnun

He talks like an American...

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stateofkane

Secession would be the greatest thing ever for this country and the world. The more division of separate territories; the better.

verklingen

^ that's an idiotic notion

__________________

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

stateofkane

It is the only way to end class warfare and frustrations in this country. If we stick together we all go down together. If we separate, some sections will make it and be better off. Some won't.

verklingen

assuming we're going down at all

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

JcP

capitalist thinking at its best.

you have that already, as third world countries "don't" make it, while a select few do make it on the backs of those who didn't.

I think this notion is awful.

__________________

Just look out around us, people fightin their wars...
They think they'll be happy when they've settled their scores...
Let's lay down our weapons
and hold us apart
be still for just a minute
try to open our hearts
MORE LOVE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rev It's not what you see, it's that you're looking.