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White privilege. I don't see it. I am in the real world. Nothing handed to whites that I see. If that were so , whites would see no poverty.
Now those who are given real challenges are those born with a real disability. The deaf, blind, those with cerebral palsy or without limbs and so on.
I know a fellow who has cerebral palsy, his parents are dead. His mother was a drug addict and had 7 children by 7 different fathers.. he lives in poverty. He is white. His spirit is thankful and receives help from kind people because of his disability and his poverty . Now many people would be bitter to what life hands them. But no, there are those who overcome their challenges and don't resent what happened to them.
Some harbor resentment for what took place many generations ago. It is the Al Sharptons that keeps resentment alive and of course the race card too.
Interesting you see it this way. As someone who is Blind, and spends a lot of time among Deaf people, it's impossible for me not to see a parallel between the privilege white people have, and the privileges that sighted and hearing people have. It's impossible not to see that in the same way that many Deaf people and Blind people constantly have their competence questioned, so too do People of Color.
My physical blindness is not a barrier to me. People's attitudes and assumptions, and their unwillingness to give me my autonomy and agency, and allow me independence is the true handicap. The barriers that I face are not physical and in my eyes, but rather, social and in the minds of people. It's not in reading my textbooks in braille or using a cane to get around, or asking for brief directions to the nearest metro that I feel disabled. (After all, sometimes sighted people need directions too.) It's when people wonder what I'm doing in college, or are paralyzed by their fear that I won't make it from point A to point B, or overestimate how much assistance I need and insist on helping me when I don't need or want it, that I feel disabled.
Having married into a Black family, and had other family members date and marry into Black families as well, I see this day to day. I see the privileges I get. I have seen the same security guard who offered to guide me then proceed to ask my Black relative for ID or accuse them of stealing. I have seen people constantly assume that my Black family is not connected to me by choice, through love, but rather, that they must be working for me. I see the authority I am automatically given as a white person, someone that my Black family members have to prove in order to get--in the same way I have to prove my competence as a Blind person before people give it to me.
For me it's impossible not to see how being a Person of Color in a white world isn't a handicap.
And to be brutally honest, sometimes I do resent the fact that so many people fundamentally do not believe in my ability to be just as independent, competent, passionate, ambitious, and have a rich and fulfilling life. So I can understand if some people of color feel this resentment from living in a white world.
Some outstanding things about what racism really is and why so many of us who are called racists because we don't like the policies of our President are getting tired of it.
Stop running around, trying to hide, and you won't be tired.
Anyone can network and find employment connections if they sell their skills and get some business cards and be ready for the opportunity that can come from being qualified. Motivation goes along way and more skills added as life goes on..
This is true, and I have gotten jobs even when I was deaf and blind, because of this. But at the end of the day, it was 100x times harder for me to get a job than my sighted hearing roommate. My ex who is mixed but appears Black had a much harder time getting jobs than my white roommate. My ex and I watched people hire my roommate after lying to our faces about how their position was filled. It's easy not to see if you don't have the direct frame of comparison, but when you do, it's impossible not to see.
Racism exists in all races. It is a human trait not limited to any particular race. Now that reality doesn't get you many votes or dollars so it is not spoken of.
Interesting you see it this way. As someone who is Blind, and spends a lot of time among Deaf people, it's impossible for me not to see a parallel between the privilege white people have, and the privileges that sighted and hearing people have. It's impossible not to see that in the same way that many Deaf people and Blind people constantly have their competence questioned, so too do People of Color.
My physical blindness is not a barrier to me. People's attitudes and assumptions, and their unwillingness to give me my autonomy and agency, and allow me independence is the true handicap. The barriers that I face are not physical and in my eyes, but rather, social and in the minds of people. It's not in reading my textbooks in braille or using a cane to get around, or asking for brief directions to the nearest metro that I feel disabled. (After all, sometimes sighted people need directions too.) It's when people wonder what I'm doing in college, or are paralyzed by their fear that I won't make it from point A to point B, or overestimate how much assistance I need and insist on helping me when I don't need or want it, that I feel disabled.
Having married into a Black family, and had other family members date and marry into Black families as well, I see this day to day. I see the privileges I get. I have seen the same security guard who offered to guide me then proceed to ask my Black relative for ID or accuse them of stealing. I have seen people constantly assume that my Black family is not connected to me by choice, through love, but rather, that they must be working for me. I see the authority I am automatically given as a white person, someone that my Black family members have to prove in order to get--in the same way I have to prove my competence as a Blind person before people give it to me.
For me it's impossible not to see how being a Person of Color in a white world isn't a handicap.
And to be brutally honest, sometimes I do resent the fact that so many people fundamentally do not believe in my ability to be just as independent, competent, passionate, ambitious, and have a rich and fulfilling life. So I can understand if some people of color feel this resentment from living in a white world.
You make some interesting points from a very interesting perspective.
As a white person with biracial kids, I agree that there is something called "white privilege." I also think that you can find societies and areas in which this is minimized - and in some cases done away with. The military lifestyle is one of those places - where people are categorized by their accomplishments, branch, MOS, etc rather than by race. (Even there, you will find a bit of racism, but it seems to go both ways, and I don't see white privilege at play in that subculture.)
White people don't seem to even be aware of it -and who can blame us, really? If we're not exposed to the subtle differences in initial assessments, reactions, acceptance (or lack thereof) in our lives, how would we KNOW the advantage we have been born with -unless someone else points it out, which is pretty damn tricky to do without offending others.
If you've traveled to other parts of the world, where you are a different color than the majority, or judged not on your skin tone but on your nationality, you will have had a taste of what people of color deal with every minute of every day. Denying this by claiming that you don't judge others on the color of their skin, doesn't mean that they are NOT judged - because they are. Every day. It's an ugly reality. Lessening? Yes. But still there? YES.
HOWEVER:
"White privilege" doesn't mean that white people don't have to bust their butts to earn an education or make a living. It doesn't mean that we get to move right on into a big house on Easy Street with a staff of darker people dressed as maids and butlers who we expect to be subservient to us. What it means is that we are acknowledged as a member of the majority - usually subconsciously. It means one less obstacle to overcome - not that we have NO obstacles.
What I think some people forget sometimes though is that, though we are white, and we don't have a racial barrier to cross, we may have other obstacles to success that are JUST as hard to overcome, in some cases much harder to overcome (for example, blindness - ask anyone if they would rather be black, or blind, and I bet they'd choose black every time!).
So when our success in something seems to be chalked up to, "Well, it's easier for you, because you are white!" when the person saying that actually has NO IDEA how we may have struggled to succeed, then - this accusation really ticks us off.
For instance, my husband is white as the driven snow. OMG, he's a WHITE MALE. That surely gives him some sort of advantage, right? Perhaps. But that has to be balanced by the fact that he was raised by a single mom, because his father died in an industrial accident. His family was very poor. His mother had a nervous breakdown when he was a child, and consequently he had a very difficult and insecure childhood. He paid his own way through school, working and going to school full time. He built a career in the oilfield where he worked 80 hours a week - or MORE - outside in rain, sleet, snow, hail, mud, heat, freezing cold, you name it, often spending weeks at a time away from home on an oil derrick off the coast of Angola or some other godforsaken place. When he left one job after eleven years, he had FIVE MONTHS of sick time built up, because he had never taken one single sick day.
So - when someone implies or states that he is successful because of white privilege, can you see how offensive this would be to him?
Racism exists in all races. It is a human trait not limited to any particular race. Now that reality doesn't get you many votes or dollars so it is not spoken of.
And it's whomever rose to the top first and stood their ground.
And it's whomever rose to the top first and stood their ground.
Racism is not restained by classifications of people.
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