# Is there a "White Privilege"? If so, what is it, and what are the public-policy implications? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 29, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759 "2010-12-29T22:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759/81 "2011-01-05T14:36:44Z")
I can only assume that this entire post is sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759/82 "2011-01-05T14:39:19Z")
> [@](#): > > So they made “the right to bare arms” second. So we can work together No, the Right to Bare Arms was added as a sop to the fledgling sunblock industry. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759/83 "2011-01-05T16:16:25Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > For white people, race is invisible until it’s not (like when one becomes a teacher at a predominately black school). For black people, race becomes an issue pretty much from day 1. One day it probably won’t be this way, but it makes perfect sense why people from my generation (Gen X) and older were raised like this. It was a matter of survival for our parents and grandparents to know the “rules”. So of course they’re going to teach us those rules, and the concomitant mistrust and anxiety, to their off-spring. I think this says it beautifully. I think about race more than a lot of white people, and now that I’m seriously involved with a black man I think about it more than ever. But even though that’s true, he’s more aware of it than I am simply because I’ve had the privilege of being able to ignore what I choose to ignore. I grew up in an almost entirely white community, went to school and university at almost entirely white places, lived in Whiteville among the Whitersons. I get to stay here if I want, and be sheltered from recognizing what happens outside of these enclaves (or inside the enclaves if someone “other” penetrates them, since it happens so rarely). (This whole conversation reminds me of how often Christians think they are persecuted.) My boyfriend and I go out in public together and he’s still more aware of things than I am. Oh, I might notice if someone is staring at us, and if I see a mixed-race couple I feel a little frisson of recognition, but I’ve been in the majority my whole life. I’ve been able to afford to ignore race. We walked down a street in DC’s Chinatown and I was hyper-aware of my race, and of my race relative to my boyfriend’s. I didn’t feel threatened, but I was noticing the HELL out of that situation (and still naive about what the risks really were). It’s like it takes being in a situation where you are really feeling it to get a sense for what the minority experience is like in this country, and even so it was very temporary. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759/84 "2011-01-05T16:19:51Z")
> [@ecco477](#): > > Um, yeah, they were. The first ammendment is all about freedom: speech, religion, etc. That’s becaue our forefathers knew–this country has such a variety of people from all walks of life trying to free themselves from whatever taxes, laws, and institutions were connected to their homeland. People fled to this country for hope. The US was basically a giant adoption center. Our forefathers knew this, and wanted us to have the right to fight for personal freedom, from them and others. They wanted the freedom of white, male, British descendant landowners. Come on, they were a product of their very racist, very sexist, very discriminatory times. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759/85 "2011-01-05T16:37:36Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > If white kids were shooting themselves at the rate the black teenagers were, you’d have 24/7 coverage of it on CNN. Don’t you think it is significant that they are not? Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-white-privilege-if-so-what-is-it-and-what-are-the-public-policy-implications/565759.md?page=4)