This is probably a real thing. So is (probably) non-Hispanic privilege. And cis privilege, and non-ESL privilege, and much more.
Not that these things are the only way of looking at society, but IMO they can be helpful in some circumstances.
The problem is that “privilege” is an inadequate term. It rarely means “has things easy” in this context. Often what it means is that after you’ve finished choking down the shit sandwich you’ve been handed, you don’t have to have seconds unlike those other people. I’m not aware of another word in English that really covers this properly.
The fact is that while most people have to struggle in some form or another in life, some people have additional obstacles placed in front of them for reasons that have nothing to do with them personally and everything to due with a particular demographic group they belong to. The absence of these additional obstacles for some people does not imply the absence of any obstacles nor even the absence of considerable ones. It just means not having the extra overlay of difficulty to deal with. I’m not sure why this is so hard for some people to grasp.
It’s because they don’t want to grasp it.
By being white (or, if you as a Hispanic/Latino person don’t happen to self-identify as white, by having an ethnic identity that our society largely does identify as white). Is this really so hard for you to understand?
What may be confusing you is the fact that Latino/Hispanic people, although in the US they are frequently categorized as racially white, are ethnically distinct from other white ethnicities, and are themselves subject to bigotry and discrimination on that account.
So an American Hispanic guy certainly has less white privilege in our society than, say, a guy named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. But that doesn’t mean that he has no white privilege when it comes to anti-black racism.
Exactly. All of those are also, in various ways, privileged categories in US society.
In my mind the term is tainted enough that the value is overwhelmed by the baggage. Might as well call it the ‘you’re not me-privilege.’
This race vs ethnicity confusion has become serious enough that the Census Bureau is considering combining the “Hispanic origin” and “race” questions on the next census. source
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about privilege. But I don’t think the basic idea behind is controversial. Here’s my anecdotal story about privilege, from the experience of a friend:
Yes, it’s quite hard, as it seems to run counter to other confident assertions from the left. I have heard nothing but accusations of racism against Trump for his comments about Mexicans, and more generally dark imprecations about the fate of brown people, into which category I most assuredly fall, as the child of a Salvadoran immigrant. This led me to conclude that there was general agreement that white privilege was not something available to such folk.
So, no, I don’t self-identify as white, and this is the first I’m hearing that persons of my genetic heritage are largely considered white.
OK, so let me see if I can capture the new rule here, or perhaps the old rule that I never fully grokked.
As an American-born child of a Salvadoran immigrant, what privilege do I still have to “check?” And what privilege(s) may I look covetously upon due to my lack of them?
How often do you get pulled over for driving while white?
Yep. As that article notes, it is certainly possible for people of Hispanic ethnicity to identify themselves as racially nonwhite: e.g., as black, Native American, etc. But most Hispanic Americans don’t identify with those nonwhite racial categories.
Nearly everyone has experienced some sort of privilege in certain circumstances. You probably have experienced male privilege, non-black privilege, cis privilege, straight privilege, and more, in various circumstances.
I see privilege just as a way to demonstrate some of the little injustices, totally beyond one’s control, that many people don’t have to face routinely. And I think, in general, a black person (or Hispanic person) faces more of these little injustices than a white person, on average; a woman faces more than a man, in general; a trans person faces more than a cis person, in general; etc. It doesn’t mean that every black person has it harder than every white person. And I don’t think it’s meant to be competitive (though assholes will be assholes, when citing privilege as well as when dishing out injustice) – it’s not useful, IMO, to talk about whether a Hispanic person has more or less privilege than a black person, for example.
Since I’m not white, my initial assumption is that none of the times I’ve been pulled over were for driving while white.
I suppose it’s technically possible that the officer(s) who pulled me over mistook me for a white person and initiated the traffic stop on that basis, and then were disappointed to find a driver of Central American descent. How do you suggest I evaluate that possibility to better answer your question?
Stupid people face more difficulties than intelligent ones; lazy people suffer more than industrious ones. Frugal people undoubtedly suffer fewer financial setbacks than their spendthrift counterparts. Indeed, poor people suffer more indignities than their wealthy brethern.
Are any of those also categorized as “privilege?”
Another way to put privilege, IMO: on average, in most given scenarios in the US, being black will be harder than being white, when all else is equal. So a black kid with a GED will have a harder time getting a job than a white kid with a GED with identical resumes, economic background, and criminal record (or lack); a Hispanic male doctor will probably be paid less than a white male doctor with the same qualifications; an openly gay soldier will be less likely to be promoted than a straight soldier; etc. There are exceptions in certain scenarios, but I think this holds most of the time, in most circumstances.
I don’t know. They could be. Maybe it’s worth discussing, though in my understanding privilege generally is about characteristics that are entirely beyond one’s control (race, gender, gender ID, sexuality, etc.).
Golly, you really haven’t been paying attention. As HurricaneDitka notes, that categorization is even part of the standard demographic structure of the Census Bureau.
[QUOTE=Bricker]
As an American-born child of a Salvadoran immigrant, what privilege do I still have to “check?”
[/quote]
:dubious: Well, the way you put it, it sounds as though you are in the extremely special category of persons with only one biological parent.
We will know more about your various kinds of hereditary privilege if you tell us the racial/ethnic identity of your other parent, assuming (not unreasonably) that you had one.
IMO, this might be slightly missing the point of privilege, at least as I understand it. It’s about society, not biology – it doesn’t matter the race of Bricker’s parents, except how that influences how he is seen by most of society. Regardless of the race/ethnicity of his parents, if most of society sees him as white (which doesn’t sound like it’s the case), then he probably experiences white privilege frequently. If most of society sees him as Hispanic, then he probably does not experience white privilege frequently, though he probably does experience other forms of privilege (non-black privilege, male privilege, etc.) sometimes. If a very light skinned black person (since “black” can encompass a variety of skin tones in America) is raised by white parents, and society generally sees them as white, then they likely experience white privilege quite frequently.
My mother had the following grandparents: Illiniwek Indian, English, American, and Iberian Spanish. I have no idea how to characterize that.
My father’s mother was a dark-skinned Pipil Indian. As he was born out of wedlock, I’m afraid I can’t provide the requisite details for this branch of the tree.
So do I get in the club?
Wait, what?
One of you doesn’t understand privilege, yet both of you are asserting very confident statements concerning it.
For what it’s worth, if I were speaking to you on the phone you would not hear an accent. But if I were standing in front of you, you would not mistake me for an Irishman. And my surname is so Hispanic it uses a letter that’s not even in the English alphabet.
I don’t think my statements are all that confident. 