Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
I’ve been informed that as a White Male, I have White Privilege and therefore, my life is easy. It doesn’t seem easy. I decided to check what privileges I got from being a White Male. I’m having trouble finding any and that’s unfair. All the other White Males get to feel guilty, they all have an excuse to wave signs while they stand around on freeways, I don’t get to. I can’t see that I’ve ever gotten a benefit from my White Privilege.
I grew up in a town with no Black families at all. Every boy in school was a White boy. When teachers went looking for the kid who caused the trouble, I got no preference for being a White boy.
To be accepted to college, I had to meet a certain minimum GPA and test score. The college needed Black Males to meet its affirmative action goals so the GPA and test scores were lowered for Black Males. It happened again when I applied to graduate school. I received no preference for being a White Male.
To be hired for a government job, I had to score in the top 5% on the civil service exam to get an interview. The agency needed women to meet its affirmative action goals so they hired a woman who scraped by with a minimum passing score instead of hiring one of the top scoring applicants. I received no preference for being a White Male.
Supposedly, my White Privilege protects me from harassment by the police. When I was a teenage White Boy cruising at night in a bright red Mustang, you can bet I caught the eye of every traffic cop. Now that I’m a middle aged man commuting from work in a sedan, cops never notice me. I’m just as White and Male as ever, but I’m not driving a noticeable vehicle and I don’t drive badly or during high-crime hours. That’s not a privilege, that’s adulthood.
So where do I go to get my share of the privilege?
Joe Doakes
A question I keep trying to ask people who prattle about “privilege”; so let’s say Nekima Levy-Pounds, the boss of Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis, a law professor with tenure and an upper-middle-class income who can pretty much do anything she wants without fear of getting fired, and Billy Bob Bodine, a hot tar roofer from Shreveport Arkansas who sounds like an extra from Deliverance, walk into MPR or Minneapolis City Hall or the U of M.
Who would have the “privilege”?
White is the new black.
hey merg, speaking of privilege, what’s it take to get you to respond to email? I think Joe may get bennies he don’t even realize!
The most privileged people are those who get to decide who is and who is not privileged. Duh.
I am a white male. I’m sorry. I am also heterosexual. Again, I’m sorry. I also profess the teachings of Jesus Christ. Please accept my apologies. I believe in American strength. I shall be digging a hole in which to kill myself. I hope this will make amends.
OK, so my white privilege got me discriminated against in getting into college, my degree field, grad school, jobs, and it’s set to do the same for my kids. Who needs enemies when you’ve got white privilege?
Really, the only privilege I’ve got–child of divorced parents whose grandparents all had to leave the farms they grew up on when they grew up–is simply that my parents encouraged me to read and learn. Doesn’t seem like anybody stopped anyone else from doing that since 1865, to put it mildly.