White Privilege
While surfing YouTube I found this compelling video of anti-racism writer Tim Wise, speaking on the matter of “white privilege.” Here is a list of examples of white privilege, written slightly in the vein of “you might be a redneck if…,” that may clarify the concept for TNG readers. It seems that in this particular case, Mr. Wise believes that the Palin family is exceptionally privileged in this manner:
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.
10 comments:
Interesting that Wise's tone, inflection, and mannerisms remind me more of a black preacher than a white professor.
Towleroad is never going to mention this, that's for sure.
Um..... I think white privilege is a bit broader than Sarah Palin.
Sure she benefits.
But what a complete distortion of a very real problem!
same kool-aid. different flavor.
Actually, Wise's comments aren't as koolaid-y as some of the things that have been posted on TNG. White privilege does exist, and Wise's history and analysis are fundamentally accurate.
Where I take issue to things written in this blog are any instances in which attacks on white people are somehow excusable or something they brought upon themselves. Blacks and whites in this country are both indeed capable of racism. Acting out on that by blacks is less systemic, but it still happens. If you want to make it an issue of power, then I submit that one white man surrounded by black youths has little or no power in that situation.
Landoftrools, the issues of power and White Privilege goes beyond the power dynamics in any given situation where you and those like you are in less numbers than those around you.
One man surrounded by Blacks, young or old--as if it matters, still has tremendous privilege. Which of them, the White man or any of the Black men, are more likely to go to college. Which of them has to wonder whether or not when they see a woman clutch her purse or cross the street as they walked towards her did so because of their ethnicity. Which of them, by no fault of their own, are de facto representatives of their ethnicity to the rest of American society. Which of them statistically are more like to end up in jail than they are to end up as a college graduate.
Power, as it relates to White Privilege, is not a matter of physical strength, it is a matter of who has undue influence and privilege one ethnicity has over another and how it plays out in society.
J. Clarence, which of them is about to get his ass kicked? I've been in that situation, and while I may regret the systemic racism that informed the lives of the young black men, when they are surrounding me, they have the power, and I do not. Racism cuts both ways, and there is no excuse - none - for a group of black youth to attack an older white man who is simply on his way to do his errands.
Landoftrolls, you seem to make a mathematical argument rather than one about racism. Of course if you are surrounded by Blacks and they are about to kick your ass they will win, but that is because their are more of them not because you are white and they are black, or vice verse.
Of course racism cuts both ways and of course there is no reason why anyone should be able to attack another person, white, black, gay, straight, or whatever trait we can come up with to divide ourselves.
White Privilege is not about saying that there are moments when Black violence against Whites is justified. If you think so, then I don't think you full grasped what McIntosh wrote in her piece. It is about the point that in our society as a white person you will have an invisible knapsack of privileges that you may not necessarily want but will have regardless.
To stick with your scenario. White Privilege would be after you were assaulted and taken to the hospital, the police did not ask you what you were doing in that neighborhood or what you did to provoke the attack. And we know that has happened to ethnic minorities that were assaulted by Whites in the past. That's the privilege you have.
And to be clear I'm don't think all whites are racist and we live in much more progressive society than before. And White Privilege as a whole is slowly but surely being chipped away. And that's awesome!
J. Clarence, you said "One man surrounded by Blacks, young or old--as if it matters, still has tremendous privilege." I had to re-read a couple of times to understand that "one man" actually meant "one white man." Why didn't you say the word white at all in this statement? Was it just a typo, or is there a subconscious understanding in your writing that privilege equates to white? If the latter is the case, then white privilege lives beyond college quotas and jailhouse statistics...it lives deep in our psyche where we don't even notice it. Of course, if it was just a typo then I'm overanalyzing =)
It was a typo, I figured since I thought it was clear that I was responding directly to landoftrolls that it would be obvious. Sorry.
Nevertheless, it does live deep in our psyche. That's what makes it a privilege. When McIntosh wrote her piece she called privilege an invisible knapsack, because those with privilege would not see the day to day effects of their privilege--unless they accepted the fact that they had such privileges in the first place.
And White Privilege is just one kind of privilege. While as a White Person you will have this invisible knapsack no matter what, you might not be privileged in another case, for example if you are a woman or gay. (For this reason some feminist believe that men can never be 'true' feminist because they will never really know what it is like to be a woman, I disagree, but this is their line of though).
I wouldn't say that jailhouse statistics are a form of White Privilege as if you assaulted someone that is a crime regardless of your ethnicity; however, you could look into what exactly what got a person in jail you might find instances of privilege. But I will say college quotas and affirmative action in general are a form of White Male Privilege, because as if you are a White Male you never have to wonder if you got the job or got into a school because of your ethnicity or sex.
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