Again you are saying that people with a particular tone of skin were afforded privileges based on your experiences and the privileges you have recieved. that in and of itself is the most supreme level of “white privilege” I have ever heard of. Rather than trying to be a racial swammy, predicting the ease of life others have experienced based solely on the color of their skin, engage people…look for solutions and stop playing the blame game.
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A privilege is defined as “a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others”. The rights you describe aren’t “privileges”, but your ability to partake in them (in a world where some people are not allowed) is.
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If anyone you know is unsure of whether they benefit from white privilege in the United States, there is a simple checklist they can consult: http://crc-global.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/white-privilege.pdf
warning: it’s a PDF
WARNING: it uses comic sans
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Yes, but unfortunately too many people (on all sides of the political spectrum) like to take the most vocal “out there” group and make it the “face” of any particular cause. It sucks, but everyone does it. Humans are horrible at analyzing things, we tend to just stereotype and label what is familiar.
is there a comic to explain to someone how not to sound like a self-righteous egotistical douche when trying to explain “white privilege”?
what you fail to understand is that you are in fact belittling someone personal history in an attempt tp honor someone elses. there are ways in life to lift some people up, without tearing others down.
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Well it’s a good thing that society changes without requiring any effort on the part of its citizens. I mean, you almost had to do something!
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If you perceive describing privilege as assigning blame, you are also wrong. Same applies.
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“White privilege” does suffer from a PR problem. People who are its beneficiaries didn’t do, or abstain from doing, anything to earn the benefits of being white, so how could white privilege possibly be a thing?
In a non-zero-sum situation (meaning more than one person can benefit at the same time), like a bank giving out a mortgage, the white person gets the mortgage, while the equally qualified black person doesn’t. Or the black person has to be more qualified to receive the same outcome. Bob could have gotten a mortgage whether or not latent racism existed, but that’s not the point. The point is that, in a world with latent racism, Bob automatically has certain advantages, all other things equal, by virtue of his ethnicity, that others without that ethnicity lack. In a world with latent racism, the black person should have also received the mortgage. (You may also add to this the fact that historical factors may have led to the black person being less qualified for the mortgage to begin with – which isn’t to say that history doesn’t also affect white people, but this country has a history of taking actions that have led to empirically worse outcomes throughout the years, continuing today, for a certain group of people.)
The relief in this situation isn’t to “give back” the benefits. That’s not realistic. The relief is for people from that advantaged ethnicity (white people today) to recognize that merit isn’t the only reason people fail or succeed. It’s a factor, to be sure, but are so many other things – among them being from that advantaged ethnicity.
This recognition leads to being a better citizen in general. For example, understanding how white privilege plays into society also leads to understanding when politicians or other people in power are making disingenuous arguments and understanding when legislation is good or bad (and for whom it’s good or bad). The point of “white privilege” isn’t to shame; it’s to realize that other people’s experiences of the world aren’t the same as my own, why that might be the case, and what I can do to change those experiences if they’re negative.
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SO what about skinny privilege? I would think it’s easier for a skinny attractive black person to get a job than a fat unnattractive white person. is that now a new “intersectionality” we have to be mindful of? count your blessing you’re not allergic to peanuts!!!
#peanutprivilegeexists
“well craig, while you did lose your parents at 8 and have been in and out of foster homes since then, maggie is asian AND wheelchair bound…err handicapable…so enjoy your privilege and be quiet.”
it’s just silly and ludicrous.
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But it’s National Poetry Month!
It’s also National Poetry Generation Month… but I’ll not post any of that here.
yet.
Yeah, it’s almost
like the comic artist was
making sweeping generalizations about people of
European descent,
without looking at
any of
the details. It appears that there are no factions within that group and
all “white people” have had a nice life
together in perfect harmony. With this new found
representation of the world,
I can be perfectly sure that Irish,
Italian, and
Polish
immigrants never had to deal with segregation
from the white
anglo-saxon, protestant
citizens of
this country that
may have immigrated before them. It’s clear
to me
now that “white privilege” is
really just some racially ingrained
trait where white parents look to achieve in the world in
order to pass on wealth to their posterity. How
disgusting.
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Look. . . I’m as white as they come. I grew up learning about the civil rights movement as history, and feeling satisfied that those struggles were a thing of the past, racism was fading into memory. But in the last few years I’ve had to admit that is quite obviously not true. I would like to just live my life and not think about racism, but acting like it isn’t an issue probably doesn’t help matters.
White people need to stop feeling butt-hurt when white privilege is pointed out, it doesn’t mean you are a racist, it doesn’t even mean you approve of white privilege, but you (we) have probably benefited from it whether we know it or not.
I also admit that I don’t know what can definitively be done to correct it, but I’m not about to argue that nothing can be done-- that’s defeatist.
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Again - what action do you propose? You can only do so much to affect the hearts of minds of those around you. And as history shows, that doesn’t always work.
WHILE I DO NOT DISAGREE with this comic in the slightest… I DO disagree on the focus.
It seems like many decry “privilege”, and SEEM to want to solve it by taking away from those who have benefited from it in the past.
This is a “zero sum” game. The SOLUTION is to bring equivalent opportunities forward for those who have lacked them in the past.
Inclusive vs. exclusive.
For example . Instead of asying "don’t read white cis male authors " ( and may that racist asshat forever be ridiculed for that) say “we should read more diverse authours, like Octavia Butler, China Melville, and Nicola Griffith”.
You cannot right wrongs with more wrongs.
My point is “privilege” is not what we should be focusing on, EQUALITY is. What has happened in the past is instructional and informative but does little to address inequality.
Let’s figure out WHERE WE ARE NOW … and then figure out WHERE WE WANT TO BE … and take the steps needed to get there.
I cannot fix what happened before I was born.
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Yes, it does. For example, symphony orchestras used to be entirely white and male. They started doing the musical audition part behind a screen (and later figured out they needed to add carpet so the click of women’s heels weren’t obvious) and lo-and-behold, it turns out there are lots of women and non-whites who play well enough to earn a spot in those orchestras.
Conversely, numerous studies have shown that identical resumes get very different treatment based on whether the name at the top is “Christopher” vs. “Christine”, or “Jason” vs. “Jamal”.
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Although, in this instance, my question was rhetorical, I am genuinely interested in the answer. It’s really hard to explain to someone (especially someone who comes from a society that worships individualism) that they have certain advantages, without making it personal.
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Well said. That’s the key point, right there, I believe.
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It just seems like a strange, torturous (and arguably counterproductive) way of talking about a problem. What I mean is that you can say: “This is terrible! Group A are being deprived of their basic rights!” OR you can say: “This is terrible! Group B is being privileged in its access to rights by virtue of Group A being denied access to them!” The second way just seems like a pointlessly circuitous (and more contentious) way of saying exactly the same thing. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”, not “A Condemnation of the Privileges of Men.”
Framing it as a privilege for group X, rather than mistreatment of group Y does have the useful effect of pushing group X to acknowledge that the experiences that they have had are not at all universal, even if they should be.
The “condemnation” seems to be in your own head. To acknowledge that white men do not face a specific group of problems that other people do is not a condemnation of the privileged parties. On the other hand, if I say that I am doing better than another person due purely to my intrinsic virtues and that extrinsic factors are not relevant, that gets into the territory of “unexamined privilege”, which is frequently associated with acting like an asshole
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I’m probably going to regret this…
No one is asking you for a grand global gesture of fealty to humankind. Start simple, whatever it is you care most about. Volunteer at a local women’s shelter, or homeless shelter, or animal shelter, or for a candidate you support. (And ffs, cast informed votes in every election, no matter how small. The smaller the campaign, the more your influence.) It may only improve the situation locally, but ultimately we all live locally. And when your racist uncle gets drunk on Thanksgiving and starts ranting about the Jewexicans or whatever, oppose him. He won’t listen because he’s an idiot, but there’s other people there.
The civil rights movement didn’t magically happen. Nor the women’s rights movement. Nor the gay rights movement. They happened because enough people got fed up with the horseshit that passed for civil society at the time, they demanded change through protest and appeal to authority, and they succeeded because of vocal support from a large portion of the citizenry.
Finally, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Movements that demand purity and fealty always end up eating themselves.
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