Why do people focus on "white privilage" instead of "non-white disadvantages"? (employment, illegal)
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All privilege means is there is some part of your identity that has an easier time operating in society, all things being equal, than people who don't share that identity.
There is class privilege, gender privilege, privilege associated with sexual identity, etc.
For instance, a middle class straight black female will have advantages over a middle class gay black female. If all you change is that one thing, the straight one is more accepted in society. That is what privilege means.
White privilege doesn't mean all whites have it easy. It means ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, the white skin is an advantage in America. So a poor white male working his way up from poverty would have more acceptance moving through society than a poor black male working his way up from poverty.
White privilege (and male privilege) get focused on in part because they are sensational and spark controversy. And often, the definition gets misrepresented as "all whites have it easy" which is not what it means. But honestly, if we don't talk about it how can we change it? Conversations about straight privilege helped me to see things I had taken for granted forever. It made me a better ally. It can be quite helpful if the defensiveness gets dropped.
There's no privilege, there's just 'dispriviliege'. No matter what color or race you happen to be, you still have to get up in the morning, put your pants on one leg at a time, and go out and earn your keep, nobody hands you anything, so in that sense, you have to work just as hard as the next guy. Now, if someone has their skin color, religion or sexual orientation or even the way they look held against them, that has nothing to do with whites, that has to do with that specific person's "situation" being held against them.
The saying "do unto others" means that there's an expected way that a human being should be treated....so maybe if you're white and you have been treated great all these years, you know that you're not really getting anything extra because that's how a normal human being should expect society to treat them anyway....if you are white and living in a bubble (hypothetically speaking) and just go thru life oblivious to how everyone else is treated, you're never going to say to yourself "hmmmm, its odd how well im treated", you're never going to think that the way you're treated is anything "Special" you just figure that's how all people are always treated......but if others are NOT treated that way, that's them not having privilege of being "treated great" for lack of better words.
The NY Times has this article up "
"At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside"
Unintentionally or not, I think it shows all the problems with the "White Privilege" movement. It focuses on some of the wealthiest and most privileged white children attending tony NY Prep Schools. No doubt these children are privileged, but it is not at all reflective of the broader white population. Their privilege is very tangentially related to being white and mostly about having wealthy, well connected parents.
It presents Whites as part of a monolithic culture..where all whites spend their summer trying to decide between traveling to france or summering in the hamptons. It then goes to talk about how minorities can't relate to their extravagant lifestyles..as if your typical white american would?
By focusing so much on the most privileged of white people and chalking their privilege up to their whiteness. .I suspect this article will be more playing to the base. People who the concept will like the article..but those who are skeptical of the white privilege notion will just point to this article as how silly the concept is.
The discussion about white privilege is stale and counterproductive:
1) I can assure everyone that nothing will change the relations between ethnic groups, even if we beat this horse to death. It may give the false impression that it has impact, but it doesn't. We can talk about past injustices, but we can't change the past. Even if there is white privilege, that won't change by talking. The question isn't who's right OR wrong, but a practical one.
2) It sometimes alienates white people, but most importantly, it makes future generation blacks feel bad about themselves. And, if someone feels bad, they aren't going to take positive action. It is likely to propagate the problem 50, 100 years into the future.
3) The debate should be shifted to FUTURE. What can this country do to help black people move forward, as a community? Are there practical things to consider? New laws, perhaps a new approach... If the discussion is focused on practical things, whites, Asians, and maybe other minorities can join in and it gains momentum.
What minorities got a free pass? I'm Black and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for medical school. Never got a free pass for anything.
Im not sure about med school, but for business school there are TONS of minority only scholarships. I received an email the other day from my grad school director about a scholarship, I read the fine print and it was only for minorities. Apparently they didnt brush that email list up against a list of minority status....
No matter what there will always be a large segment of minorities that will claim I didnt work hard and that I was priveledged because they WANT TO BELIEVE that its true. Regardless of the fact that I paid my way through University while working part time as a grocery clerk and used some students loans.....
The NY Times has this article up "
"At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside"
Unintentionally or not, I think it shows all the problems with the "White Privilege" movement. It focuses on some of the wealthiest and most privileged white children attending tony NY Prep Schools. No doubt these children are privileged, but it is not at all reflective of the broader white population. Their privilege is very tangentially related to being white and mostly about having wealthy, well connected parents.
It presents Whites as part of a monolithic culture..where all whites spend their summer trying to decide between traveling to france or summering in the hamptons. It then goes to talk about how minorities can't relate to their extravagant lifestyles..as if your typical white american would?
By focusing so much on the most privileged of white people and chalking their privilege up to their whiteness. .I suspect this article will be more playing to the base. People who the concept will like the article..but those who are skeptical of the white privilege notion will just point to this article as how silly the concept is.
Im not sure about med school, but for business school there are TONS of minority only scholarships. I received an email the other day from my grad school director about a scholarship, I read the fine print and it was only for minorities. Apparently they didnt brush that email list up against a list of minority status....
No matter what there will always be a large segment of minorities that will claim I didnt work hard and that I was priveledged because they WANT TO BELIEVE that its true. Regardless of the fact that I paid my way through University while working part time as a grocery clerk and used some students loans.....
It's not that we think you didn't work hard so much as the fact that we're aware of the fact that you don't have to prove yourself in ways that we do.
For example, I have a friend who is a short, Hispanic woman. She goes to one of the top medical schools in the country and is among the top students there, but when she sets foot in the hospital most people assume she's a nurse. Most people assume I'm a security guard.
These things are real and have been documented. One study showed that having a White sounding name on a resume had the equivalent effect of adding 8 years of job experience compared to having an "ethnic" sounding one. White men with crimminal records have comparable unemployment rates to Black men with bachelor's degrees.
I guess the easiest way I can explain this is that White privilege is the notion that for the most part, as a White person if you work hard and obey the law and not eff up too bad, you'll do okay in life, whereas for many people of Colour, especially poor people of colour, there's no guarantee that you'll make it out even if you try your hardest. Most of my friends who are professionals now have tried drugs, gotten drunk and acted a fool, but because they were middle-class White college students they didn't face the same consequences as I might have if I had tried that in the world I grew up in.
Like someone mentioned earlier, if a poor white person and a poor black person apply for the same Corporate Job, Who would get the job?
Both have the same qualifications and background.
Seeing that most whites( the 1 %) own most of the major corporations,it's a easy decision. It's a known fact that, most people like to surround themselves with people that look and act like them.
If it wasn't for Affirmative Action, the poor black persons application would have been thrown out( like in the 80's.)
But i do believe we have to come up with something better than, White Privilege.
The discussion about white privilege is stale and counterproductive:
..
2) It sometimes alienates white people, but most importantly, it makes future generation blacks feel bad about themselves.....
If it alienates enough white people, then that milestone will be pretty darned important itself.
The NY Times also had a recent op-ed story about a social scientist who demonstrated in a controlled test what white privilege means in very clear terms and it's well worth reading IMO. It shows how in a situation where both black and white passengers boarded a bus and told the driver they didn't have the fare, the white passengers were far more likely to get the free ride while the black ones were told to get off the bus.
Of course the article itself is an example of white privilege. The NYT took the matter seriously coming from two white overseas academics, when it could have easily pulled any black person at random off a street corner in New York and found out the same thing. But they wouldn't take that seriously.
The NY Times also had a recent op-ed story about a social scientist who demonstrated in a controlled test what white privilege means in very clear terms and it's well worth reading IMO. It shows how in a situation where both black and white passengers boarded a bus and told the driver they didn't have the fare, the white passengers were far more likely to get the free ride while the black ones were told to get off the bus.
Of course the article itself is an example of white privilege. The NYT took the matter seriously coming from two white overseas academics, when it could have easily pulled any black person at random off a street corner in New York and found out the same thing. But they wouldn't take that seriously.
Really interesting article. However, we should simply acknowledge that many decisions can only be biased due to the way they are formulated and taken. Maybe we should define what is still acceptable, or not.
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