In all of of this nation’s frenetic back-and-forth – usually just forth – over race, i’ve really just had one question, all all this time ”
What do you want me to do?
Only an idiot doesn’t recognize racism exists, in some form. And that’s above and beyond to the “We -ism” that is endemic to every human being in the world; the race of people around them is one of the first perceptions babies develop, with uneasiness about the difference following closely.
And white privilege exists, too. Of course, the roots of white privilege date back hundreds, maybe thousands of years, when wage Northern European societies developed into patriarchal, militaristic societies dominated by aggressive warrior cultures that were able to avoid being enslaved, for the most part, as societies, at a time when most sub-Saharan African societies were small, matriarchal, and ripe for the picking buy more aggressive societies.
That’s one of the greatest “privileges” a society can hand down to its offspring; a history of freedom.
So racism and privilege exists. Stipulated.
Now what?
Writing at The Daily Beast,” John McWhorter, in a long, excellent article, has the same questions:
However, one can thoroughly understand how racism works and still ask just what this laser focus on “White Privilege” is meant to achieve.
“This is messy work, but these conversations are necessary,” says Sandra Chapman, director of diversity and community at Little Red School House in New York City. OK—but why? Note that the answer cannot be, “So that whites will understand that they are the privileged … etc.” That makes as much sense as saying “Because!” So I’m going to dare to ask a simple question: What exactly are we trying to achieve with this particular lesson?
And the questions keep coming. I will urge you to read the whole thing.
However, one can thoroughly understand how racism works and still ask just what this laser focus on “White Privilege” is meant to achieve.
Full employment and lavish compensation for SJWs. Anything else is tertiary.
Hmmm. I am white and yet I do not feel privileged.
Hard to take the guy seriously when he feels he has to write this:
McWhorter misses an important part of the ‘white privilege’ fraud. It is an effort by the educated and the political class to transfer privilege from an unfavored group to a favored group. Who is actually having their ‘privilege’ assaulted? It ain’t the kids going to expensive private schools, whatever their color. The villain of Ferguson was a working-class cop. Here’s some news: if you are given a 150 point SAT advantage in college admissions based on your race, you are race-privileged.
The two groups of people that are obsessed with race in the United States are the intellectual class and black underclass. Both groups can go fuck themselves, the rest of us have lives to live.
From the article:
“To be sure, there is, indeed, a distinct White Privilege. Being white does offer a freedom not easily available to others. You can underperform without it being ascribed to your race. And when you excel, no one wonders whether Affirmative Action had anything to do it. Authority figures are likely to be your color, and no one associates people of your color with a propensity to violence. No one expects you to represent your race in a class discussion or anywhere else.”
I was born this color. I can’t do anything about it. It’s not my fault society treats me differently from you, because of my color. Berating me about things I can’t wastes your time and annoys me.
Worse, there’s a reason for stereotypes. Blacks are associated with violence because of crime statistics. Affirmative Action intentionally promotes minimally qualified Blacks over better qualified Whites. And White Privilege 101 is explicitly about forcing me to me represent my race in a class discussion.
I’ve sat through those classes and it feels as if the reason they harp on White privilege is to excuse Black behavior: “It’s not our fault we drop out of school, can’t get jobs and commit crimes, we’re not as privileged as White people.” Yeah, sure, you’re deprived on account of you’re depraved. That song was funny in 1961, not it’s just old.
I am reminded of something that Walter Williams notes often; the real “white privilege” in this country is to grow up in a two parent home where at least one parent works a steady job, to graduate from high school able to read your diploma, and to yourself find a steady job, stay out of crime, and get married before you start having children yourself. He, as well as Thomas Sowell, note that when you control for factors like this, the statistical discrepancies between races virtually disappear.
Seems to me that what every demographic needs is a little more of the “white privilege” Drs. Williams and Sowell talk about. Certainly “murdered” people like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin could have used an involved father to teach them that if you attack someone for “dissing” you, you may find out he’s armed. (shame on the author for referring to those deaths as “murders”–sorry, that’s not what the courts found)
I have the same reaction when someone does a stunt to “raise my awareness”. Actually I was already aware of cancer but consider my awareness raised.
Now what?
Or male privilege. I had a coworker throw that at me once
Crap, reversed the words to Officer Krupke, should have said: “Yeah, sure, you’re depraved on account of you’re deprived. That song was funny in 1961; now it’s just old.”
Although it occurs to me it works the other way, too. Depraved people end up being deprived – after you burn down all the stores in the ghetto, there’s nowhere to buy food, your neighborhood is a food desert of your own making. Still nothing I can do about it.
The two groups of people that are obsessed with race in the United States are the intellectual class and black underclass.
I wish it were that tightly focused. You have to add the Federal and most state governments to that list, and the damage they do makes the other groups pale by comparison.
It still gets me piqued that we’re supposed to move past race by focusing on somebody’s race rather than their abilities and achievements. I’m more American Indian than Elizabeth Warren in that I have documented descent from a great-great grandmother, but does that grant me an exemption from the “guilt” I’m supposed to have for having “White Privilege”? Or should what I have done with my life and how I’ve lived it matter more?
One of my favorite examples of “privilege” is that bit about “linguistic discrimination against black people”, or translated, “employers prefer employees to speak standard English instead of New Yawk, Baastin, or any of the other strong regional dialects.”
Honestly, what ever happened to the principle “when in Rome”? If you’re in Italy, you learn a bit of Italian, in Germany or Austria, German, and in DC, you speak gibberish. What is so complicated about this?
Bikebubba, you’ve raise a good point. My credit union is in Frogtown, heavy Hmong customer base. The tellers are all young Hmong women who can flip between English and Hmong instantly. They all have St. Paul accents because that’s where they went to High School.
There’s a McDonalds a few blocks away, also in Frogtown, the counter staff there are all young Black women who sound like they just fell off the turnip truck from Alabama, even though they also went to St. Paul High School, sat right next to the Hmong girls. How is that possible?
Here’s a recent video from Indianapolis – this is a tough one to watch. A white teen girl and young brother getting pounded by a black teen girl. And then the very young boy attempts to fight for his sister and is knocked to the ground too! All to the cheers of the black crowd. This one will not cheer you up. Anyone want to have a dialogue about this?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b10_1426395873
You have really mangle your sense of justice to understand the ‘white privilege’ mindset. It’s all about power imbalances, as perceived by brains that are off-kilter. A gang of blacks beating on whites is a result of white privilege. See how that works?
PaulC; unfortunately, these types of incidents are occurring all to frequently, in every major city. Gangs of black teens, go to popular malls and public areas, block entrances and generally cause mayhem, just like those miscreants in downtown Minneapolis did last night. The left wing propaganda machine, never reports it that way, afraid that they will appear “racist”. Now with the police running scared, who is going to stop these incidents? Add to that the race baiting charlatans named Sharpton, Jackson, Ellison, Holder and his excellency and you have a runaway train.
I found this snippet from an interview with a guy who is an important person on some TV soap opera about the rap music business. I don’t know if this STRONG person is Black or white, but he is some kind of media person with influence. His ability to use the English language is crap. I weep for our nation.
The guy talks by stringing cliches together. I’ve read this statement a dozen times and, although the phrase ‘race relations’ seems to be his topic, I cannot tell what he is trying to say about ‘race relations’.
By the way, it was “white privilege” that resulted in Elvis Presley being sent to Canada so his backwoods Mississippi accent would be reduced enough so he could be understood in his movies. Or something like that.
And the crime thing? Well, yes, but it strikes me that with over 10000 murders a year, the list of racially motivated crimes is thankfully short, no? Unless the coverup is huge, of course.
Pingback: Fighting Racism With Racism | Shot in the Dark