White privilege

[Buzz]

(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 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, you 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.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 200, and of Speaking Treason Fluently.

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/timwise

[NYBURBS]

Well that was a bunch of non-sense and garbage. I must tell you I feel dumber for having read it.

[chefmike]

Good article, Buzz. I was on my mountain bike yesterday when this bitch in a pickup truck passed me, after honking to register her displeasure with me sharing her road. As she passed, I noticed this huge banner in her rear cab window that read NO OBAMA NATION!. Don't tell me for a minute that what it wasn't really meant to convey is NO NIGGER PRESIDENT! I hope she saw me flip her off in her rear-view mirror.

[chefmike]

Well that was a bunch of non-sense and garbage. I must tell you I feel dumber for having read it.

Or maybe you should feel dumber for having said that...

[celticgrafix]

buzz fuck u bitch, if anyone get privileges it's u and u still complain about it, and majority of white americans never owned slaves, so why should we be kissing ur ass, cry all u want, that's what ur best at

[celticgrafix]

and fuck u for having 51 posts and bringing up some racist shit like that

[SarahG]

I know my family owned slaves, and I thought the OP was well written, although I will admit I didn't agree with all the points it was trying to make.

Particularly regarding Obama's church, the media did appear to be hostile to this preacher in a way that is usually not applied towards the (imo) crazy white rel right churches out there, however I am sure it would not have gone over well if McCain had been friendly with say, Falwell, or the Westboro Baptist Church.... but those two are particularly extreme and,

I would bet most of my money, that the press would have been entirely tolerant towards the Westboro Baptist Church if they had all the same views, attitudes & members as they do now... only minus the record of protesting at soldiers' funerals.

There are no shortage of extremist rel right churches who have views that would make Jeremiah Wright look mainstream that simply don't get play, because their hate is tolerant and accepted. Churches that have made up a significant portion of the support for the republican party in recent years.

I say this while realizing that not all churches in America have these extremist, fanatical views.

I do have to wonder if the publicity would have been different had the Unitarian church that was shot up for its liberal views in recent months had been some evangelical megachurch, targeted by some "evil liberal extremist" for their position on social issues.

[hippifried]

Aah've nevah baein privluged. Mah great granddaddy uhned mah rank of cuhnnal on merit. Ch'all're 'lowd tuh luhn tuh read & wraht these days & eevun gets paid fo yo choahs. T'ain't no need tuh be gittin' uppity.

Magnolia! Aah'll be takin' mah mint julip on the po-ach tonight. Don' fuhgit tuh ahr'n mah sheets. Aah's got a meetin' t'nahght.

[yodajazz]

buzz fuck u bitch, if anyone get privileges it's u and u still complain about it, and majority of white americans never owned slaves, so why should we be kissing ur ass, cry all u want, that's what ur best at

and fuck u for having 51 posts and bringing up some racist shit like that

No the majority of people did not own slaves. But a large amount to people, had to support the practice for it to exist. The point of the article is that even today there is still a double standard when it comes to race issues. One need only to look at the presidential race to see it.

Funny thing that Blacks experience racism and complain, they are called racists, for bringing up the racial issue. I’m bring this up from the direct experience of others in my life, myself including. Every Black person I know that I have talked to about it, know a White person, who came in on their jobs, over them as their supervisor, with less experience. And in most cases, the Black person, has help train their new boss, getting paid much more than them.

I’ll relate this directly from family experience. My father, decided to let others run his family grocery store, and took a job at Chrslyer. He worked on the assembly line machines for a few months. Then they bought in a young White man maybe half his age, to take over his line job, and assigned him to sweep the floors. He was 40 years old, but in great shape. He ran on the same high school track team as Jesse Owens. Olympic Medal Winner. He was a proud man, and said, I don’t have to work for the White Man and quit. So the little mom and pop store, (mother worked there too), was our family source of living.

So how this relates, is that all our lives we have been told a lot of those White’s had higher education, that’s why the young ones are coming as our bosses. Now in 2008, a percentage of public, thinks that a White woman, with a B.A. Degree in Sports Journalism, is more qualified than a Black Man, with a Juris Doctor, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard. I assumed that John McClain had a law degree all this time. I just recently came to understand that he had no other formal education beyond the Naval Academy, where graduated in the bottom 10% of his class. Yet a percentage of people think that McCain being a prisoner of war for five years, gives him better judgment, than a man who taught constitutional law for 12 years.

But I can now predict Obama will win. Once White people can view in him this context:

Barrack Obama, just another janitor coming in to clean up the White man’s mess!

[qeuqheeg222]

it kills me when they complain about history...they want to bitch about "black history month"...they seem to forget that all history classes taught are pretty much the "western civilization" type which are pretty much about caucasians with a smattering of egyptians and sumerians....i was listenin to Rush the other day(good to know what the enemy is listenin to) and he was claimin Mcsame was makin inroads into blue states makin them "purple"states now...but he claimed some states were still"black"states but could turn to red...i almost lost it...WTF!!!!!