"White Privilege"

I don't know. I really don't like the term.

I think a more fitting term is "upper class" privilege.

To suggest that white folks haven't had to earn their way through society because of some magical "privilege" of being white is not entirely true. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are plenty of people in positions they have not earned, but I find that financial class has way more to do with it than skin color. We live in the land of the free, where almost anybody can do almost anything if they put their time and effort into it. Some may have a much more difficult path to get there, due circumstances beyond their control, but money talks. It's a rich man's world, not a white man's world despite a lot of rich people being white.

 

ive been hearing it as well. I think it means in America, if you're white (and in other places in the world but especially in America) you get a pass for the bullshitty things you may have done while others (non white) get prosecuted for doing the same bullshitty things the white person did. Drugs is a good example of this as whites do just as much drugs as others yet they tend not to be punished as seriously as non whites. Or the legal system... hands down the legal system.

Also the lighter you are the more doors open up for you it seems.

Anyway some Examples :

Texas Teen Kills 4 Gets No Jail Time; Same Judge Gives Black Teen 10 Years For 1 Punch

No jail: Ethan Couch of Keller, Texas, is being sent to the $450k per year rehab center as part of punishment
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ously-boy-aged-fourteen-prison-TEN-YEARS.html

Another :

I Spent A Day Delivering Weed In New York City



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/06/weed-delivery-nyc-marijuana-brooklyn_n_4906701.html

 

Despite almost all rich people being white. That's one of the origins of white privilege. Another is that almost all judges are white. Another is that almost all state troopers are white. Another is that almost all prosecutors are white. Another is that almost all legislators are white.

Forty years ago you could have crossed out the almost in each of the statements I made above. With each generation after the civil rights movement a higher percentage of the people who make the decisions and the people who have the money to effect those decisions changes. Eventually things will come into alignment but we're not there yet and if the current imbalance in the way wealth is created remains we may not actually get there.

By imbalance I mean money makes money and we're approaching the kind of environment that existed before 1908 where the whole thing is rigged again.

 

It's about the power , from the days of Egypt to now, it's about the power.

Whoever has the power has the privilege.

Egypt needed pyramids built, they invaded fellow countries and enslaved their citizens.

Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and persians, Greece,
Rome, attilah the Hun...etc

They were not all white, it just happens that the world powers now happen to be white.

 

Everybody in that list with the exception of the Egyptians and the Huns was Caucasian and there is a minor dispute about the Huns since it is not clear if they were Caucasians who migrated east before coming back to the west or Asiatic.

 

These are just some examples, I did not want to go into the entire history of the nations who had power, before China became china, around 200 BCE, they did the same thing, those with the power had the privilege.

Ancient India also had a role as a significant empire and had privilege due to having influence.

C'mon bradway, you understand what I'm trying up get at here.

 

It hard being a white man in today's America, that's all I know.

 

Aryans. Not exactly Caucasian but you get what I'm driving at.

 

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Poor white folk. Deck is really stacked. Amazing how well we've managed in spite of the roadblocks society continuously throws in our way.

 

I get what you're saying, but one could easily argue that poor and middle class white folks (majority of white people) don't share the same privilege that the upper class does, or even close to it. White ancestors may have gotten a head start on the black folks that were forced here during slavery, but I do think it is indeed slowly balancing itself out as you suggested as more opportunities arise and people become more intellectually enlightened. As a white individual I have never gotten any benefit from having rich white people in the world. I've never spent their money, or had a court case dropped, received a promotion, gotten hired, or gotten out of a ticket because of my skin color. I just happen to live in a country right now that is 72% white, so it makes sense that most legislators, judges and all that are white. It's a white majority country. I'm sure if you went to India, you'd find the majority of Indian judges, lawyers, cops, etc are Indian and it's probably not even remotely close to being as diverse as America in those fields.

The truth is, I have way more in common with middle class and poor blacks, latinos, native americans, asians, etc than I do with upper class white people. Just because the majority of rich folks are white, doesn't mean whites all over the world are privileged because of them. Fuck them. I can't stand those greedy motherfuckers. It's a class war, but race is the scapegoat. The kicker is that race doesn't even exist, because all humans came from the same genetic common ancestors (who were black). Denying this basic fact gives them power over you. Don't believe the hype. Class > race when it comes to "privilege", middle class folks are all in the same boat regardless of where your recent ancestors lived. Yes, there are still racists in the world, and yes many are in positions of power. Nobody's immortal though. The power structure will continue to change as the world evolves.

 

New Hampshire is not the most popular spot with the brothers.

 

look its always a sensitive subject to tell somebody that no matter what they do they are inherently part of a system that subjugates another group of people. it is an awkward feeling to think that somehow your life experience can be greatly changed by something so simple as the color of your skin. we want to feel like we have earned everything we own and this kind of makes us feel like it has been handed to us.

the problem is that this is not what white privilege is supposed to mean, nor is that the feeling the term is meant to evoke. generally speaking, societal wealth is something that must be gained through generations. in america in the past, the white establishment made it virtually impossible for any advancement of minority communities. hell even the jews faced this same treatment to an extent; the tricky part in this instance is that jews have white skin, so its hard to tell them apart... but anyway

white privilege is basically the idea that because of the past, our societal structures contain a lot of cultural bias. standardized testing can be discriminatory not because there is a difference in intelligence level, but because the questions are geared towards white people. im not saying that this happens all the time, but there have been specific examples of questions talking about schooners sailboats and other terminology that we may take for granted but to a poor inner city kid he has no idea what the hell any of that is.

it makes sense if you forget about what it says about you and think more about what it says about those crotchety old white folks of the past...

 

I know where I come from. My grandfather held a fox hole in France while the Germans SS made a last ditch effort to push him back in the Battle of the Bulge. My mom asked him once why he would run down a snow covered hill, in green camouflage, completely exposed to the enemy. His answer to her, "It was the right thing to do."

Whatever "privileges" I have were earned by my family.

 

Yea, I served in the Marines too after 9/11. This is my country, I would easily lay down my life to protect the freedoms my fathers protected. My family has earned a right to live here. Anyone, who uses "check your privilege" had better be able to "check" theirs too.

 

In society there is the dominant group and the "generalized other". The bourgeoisie and the proletariets. Guess what race falls within the majority of the former? White folks, WASP's, Caucasions, whatever you want to call them. The dominant group holds majority of the power/administrative roles within the majority of the institutions within the US. Schools, local and federal governments, and various other bureaucracies within the US have roles filled by mainly those who come from a background of wealth and privilege. Who has the majority of wealth and privilege in the US? Those who have the means for higher education, private schooling, decision making power, and the ability to access their network of similar like-minded and privileged individuals. Who are these people? White people. From beginning of time, WASP's have had the privilege and power, and to this day their prejudice that comes from the "bubble" they live in affects the decision making and hierarchy within the makeup of society as we know it today.

 

^That's what I know, and take "white privilege" as meaning to be.

 

I'm white and I've had to work hard for everything I have, paid my own way through school, bought my own car and house, paid for my own wedding, got a job on merit and not nepotism, etc. because my parents (both white!) were not particularly wealthy or connected. We definitely didn't grow up in abject poverty or lack for food or anything like that but it's not like my entire future was laid out before me and bankrolled before I was even born.

I wouldn't say I'm "offended" by the term as very little to nothing offends me but I think it's racist to see someone who is wealthy and happens to be white and say "he only has that because he's white" much like if you saw a criminal who happened to be black and said "he is like that because he's black." Both of those statements are by definition racist but only one of those would be considered racist by the majority of soceity.