This is very relevant re: rhetoric. Calling it “white privilege” makes white people less accepting of it. On one hand, it might be more effective overall to only discuss this stuff in terms of “black disadvantage.” On the other, it’s a bit depressing to cater the rhetoric to white people so they don’t get offended.
The poll is from a while ago, and I wonder if attitudes have shifted significantly since then. I place no bets in either direction.
I guess I feel some sort of privilege being white. I would use the word “luck” more than “privilege”. I would generally equate it to the same feeling of luck that I feel having been born in America, or having grown up in Texas (which of course would be looked at strangely on this website but one I do feel), or having been born in this era.
The irony is that Beiber is probably trying to be labeled a thug, to help his career. (As so many artists in the past have.)
Basically.
Intersectionality, and I do think that socioeconomic level trumps all–though, of course, it’s VERY closely related to race, and doesn’t make things easier in all situations if you’re not privileged in other ways.
Example: I knew a very wealthy and successful black artist in the Bay Area who was treated like shit in stores because he was black. He made no effort to show off his wealth (no fancy clothes, etc.) but dressed similarly to wealthy white people in the area at the time.
White “subset” groups are even more dependent on context/TYPE of disadvantage. The examples you use here are better than hippie and biker because they aren’t chosen (if by rednecks/hillbillies you mean southerners and rural Americans). I don’t know much about Polish and Irish populations (other than that there are a lot of Polish people in some parts of Brooklyn who are treated basically like aliens by young American hipsters), but I’m a Jew and I know that we are VERY privileged in some ways.
It’s a tricky group to address because, first of all, the definition isn’t widely agreed upon. Some of us (my family included) and some non-Jews think we are a race, and others (Jews and non-Jews) think we are a religion. Religion is chosen but race is not. I have a Jewish last name, but Mormons have Mormon names and they aren’t a race (right?).
Jews are OVERrepresented in many professions and in academia. It would be absurd, for example, for me to believe I’m at a disadvantage if I hope to become a lawyer. There are tons of Jewish lawyers (huge % compared to Jews as % of the total population), and also tons of women in law compared to other high-paying professions. Also:
Forty-six of Jews earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to 19% among all Americans. (Pew Forum institute).
70% of American Jews enjoy “a high standard of living” compared to 60% of the population and more than any other religious group (Gallup).
So, yeah, anti-semitism is real, but it looks nothing like racism against black people.
That is just what it is: luck (or, if you don’t believe in luck, chance/probability that works out in your favor). It’s EXACTLY like being American or a Texan in the sense that you had absolutely no control over it.
For all our problems, I’m glad to be American, too. It’s much better than being born a woman in a country where female genital mutilation is common, for example.
“Checking my privilege” in the above scenario means thinking “WOW! I’m so lucky I haven’t had my genitals mutilated. It’s really horrible that some women have. They definitely didn’t deserve that; nobody does. What can I do about it?” It DOES NOT mean that I’m an asshole, so I don’t feel insulted.
I think the issue is the accuracy rather than any offense. It seems like if we are just trying to use correct language then certainly some of the times people are using the term white privilege they are using words incorrectly. It seems to be an issue of what the baseline comparison should be.
To me, if we tried to make the baseline comparison how a person should be treated then if you are treated better you are privileged (or advantaged) if you are treated worse you have a disadvantage. If you are treated exactly how you should be then you are neither advantaged or disadvantaged.
Some of the benefits or being white versus black are being treated better than you should be while some of the benefits are not being treated worse than you should be.
I can get behind the idea that in general, holding all else equal, a white person is privileged compared to a black person. However, I can’t get behind the idea that each of these examples is an example of privilege. It’s not a privilege to not get brutalized by the police; that’s just how it should be. If blacks are more likely to be brutalized by the police because of their race then that is an example of a black disadvantage, not white privilege.
To the extent that it’s valid distinction between AA and WP - just an artifact of the fact that blacks happen to be about 13% of the country. As a result, the charge “you got the job because/promotion because you’re white” won’t be as common because there will more frequently be multiple white applicants.
But the distinction is not a meaningful one in any event. There’s an implication in assertions of white privilege that any white guy who worked hard etc. can be presumed to have gotten something simply for being white.
“I and a white guy applied and I didn’t get the job because I was black” is the same thing as “I and a white guy applied and he got the job because he was white” are the same thing.
You hear a lot of both of these statements, but they mean the same thing anyway.
Your entire post was particularly specious.
Wait, what? I thought we were talking about Governors. To my knowledge, none of these individuals have been elected Governor. The bar that I set was specific to Governors. You know, like Jan Brewer, Sarah Palin, etc etc.
I don’t know but I tell you this, if he were running for Governor, he (or she) better have a college degree.
Are there many white politicians who have been elected governor with just a high school diploma. I assume not, but only because governors seem to have an annoying tendency to be lawyers.
But still, the categories of “minorities elected governor” and “diploma-only governors” seem to be so small that I’m not sure I’d be surprised that there was no overlap.
I’d say you’re right, and that this is neatly explained by the demographic history of the U.S., with a population of black folks mostly imported as slaves between colonial times and 1807, when the Atlantic trade was abolished, followed by waves of immigrants from various European nations, supplemented by immigrants from other nations.
I agree with LonghornDave here. Aspects of white privilege like plenty of representation in the media, white heroes in most movies, being the “default” type of person, and so forth, can be fairly called white privilege. Not being hassled by the police as much is something else, and deserves its own term and theory.
Then he should stop fucking saying it.
Not getting treated like shit is a right, not a privilege. Obsessing about the people who don’t get screwed just cripples your ability to focus on the real problem.
The author is an idiot who has clearly not lived in places where whites are not a majority.
Interesting what they consider to be “acting black.” I wonder when Asians and Latinos wear skinny jeans like Lil Wayne with Jordans if they’re “acting black” as well.
16. I heard Nicki was trying to be the new Lil Kim before I heard any Gaga comparisons.
Agreed.
I think the term is only mostly misleading, since you do hear phrases like “I was privileged to have enough to eat growing up” occasionally to describe being lucky enough to have the bare minimum considered acceptable. That’s not the normal usage however: in terms of groups of people it’s more often heard in phrases such as “(s)he came from a privileged family”, which certainly doesn’t conjure up images of a working class white family, but someone in the upper class or the upper stretches of the upper middle at the very least.
But I do have to say that it is an improvement on the meme that was popular 10 to 40 years ago that “all white people are racist” if we redefine “racism” to a meaning no one else uses. That meme seems to be fading away slowly although there are certainly die-hard social leftists who still use it.
I am delighted to discover that the issue here isn’t racism, which is what I thought it was at first. I assumed this was the case because it seemed unlikely that it was (BUT IT IS!) essentially a rhetorical issue. I think the posters actively engaged in this thread are somewhere between not racist and not as racist as the average American. We are, however, WAY more attuned to rhetoric than the average Americans. Great news!
I don’t think anyone here (for the most part) believes that black people in America have had it easy. Everyone clearly knows that slavery was awful and that black and white people are not treated equally and so forth. I actually think mostly everyone–if not actually everyone–agrees that white privilege exists. The issue is that “white privilege” isn’t always an accurate term. No one should be pointlessly shot by the cops or enslaved. But not having to deal with this shit is a RIGHT, not a privilege. So the distinction is between POC being denied basic rights and white people being given special privileges. Both exist, but not everything in the buzzfeed article was an example of the latter.
Am I right? It took me a while to believe that this was rhetoric > racism but I think it is!
Just to be clear:
When you read that post, did you honestly think, “This person is advocating more police brutality!”
Or did you think, “This person clearly wants less police brutality, but he’s using a word I don’t like, so I’m going to pretend to completely misunderstand what he’s saying because I think it’ll make me look clever?”
This is a good post! Privileged (used as lucky/at an advantage/etc.) does make sense in every context here if we operate in terms of “not being totally fucked is a blessing” vs. “people should be treated well and have the things they need.”
I’m probably a die-hard social leftist by your definition, but I prefer “the individual racist need not exist for racism to exist because racism is part of the very fabric of our society via real provable history.” The majority has also historically helped the shit out of the oppressed minority in this country. Just be on the right side of history by supporting legislation that helps rather than hurts people at a disadvantage (to help them become equal) and have some empathy.