I do not think that term means what you think it means. Though, much of the push back comes from the use of the word "privilege," I think. It doesn't mean quite what the common speaker had come to understand the word to mean in everyday speech. "White Privilege" is a term used to describe things like people with "white" sounding names being called back for job interviews more often in spite of equal or lesser qualifications (I have personally witnessed this happening, don't claim it doesn't), or that given two equal minor crimes a white person will often not get equally harsh treatment. It does NOT mean that as a white person you get things handed to you, or that your life is easy, or that you are personally responsible for anything. It means there are things other ethnicities often have harder than you based on skin color, and these are often things whites do not notice and so claim don't exist. And you can downvote me, but that's how "white privilege" is used in sociological talk.
Stay in school son, you're the king of the books but would drown in the street
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· 9 years ago
I live barely above the poverty line--because of debt, which is finally improving because I've worked hard for it--on the border between a white neighborhood mixed with gentrifying yuppies and broke people like me, and a poorer minority neighborhood with regular shootings. I have had jobs involving traveling theough the inner city alone at 2am to get home after a two hour bus commute, and I'm in the middle of applying for my license to carry a gun, which I know how to use. I also have a bachelor's degree already. Magically, I've managed to survive in the street long enough to hit 30... WITHOUT automatically crying about how "everybody be pickin' on me cause I'm white." Yeah, that's why you can't get anywhere in life, Jimbo. Those minorities beating you down, not because you can't hack it.
Dear Envius,
I don't care about the downvotes you got. Thanks for these two comments.
Plus, these views on what "white privilege" is believed to be are fundamentally racist.
In most ways this is right but in some it's wrong. Yes there are some people out there who are still racist, but there are people who are not going to hire a white person. Racism goes both ways. In fact colleges are more likely to give a minority a scholarship
You're downvoted because sometimes people want to have actual discussions about important topics and I am honestly tired of people complaining about "it's FUNsubstance". If you don't like it, just scroll past
White privilege= Benefitting from your ancestors stealing land and killing the indigouneous people then building "their" nation off of the backs of another race while demonizing every culture that's not like them. We're not blaming you for the actions of your ancestors, we're blaming you for hugely benefiting from they're horrible actions and denying that it has anything to do with your success, like its because the other races are lazy and don't work as hard and that why at the very least, white people arnt being killed in the streets like dogs by the people who are support to protect us.Its being born on third base and asking why everyone else didn't get a home run. You might have worked your ass off for the things that you have, but other races have to work twice as hard. When most of y'all refuse to even TRY to acknowledge that the 700+ years that white people have primarily screwed things up for everyone else is effecting us today, how can I take you seriously?
Uh, I don't attribute my success to anything but my hard work. I am white, though, so I *must* have only earned my success through said privilege. You state that white people have been screwing up our country for 700 years. If the population was overwhelmingly black, asian, or something else, though, those people (simply by sheer numbers) would have screwed it up, too.
Like I said, it doesn't mean that you didn't work hard, it just means for most people of color, its much harder. I literally said " you may have worked your ass off" do you read? Yeah that's true, it would be like that if the majority wasn't white. But its not. So lets talk about reality here. Like I also said, we're not blaming you for your anscetors faults, we're blaming you for benefiting from them and acting like you don't. You may have slaved to turn $200 to $2,000 but the reason you had the $200 in the first place was because your ancestors got the money from real slaves and in the process, whitewashed the entire country we built and made it even harder to get the first $200 for non white people.
No the reason we have 200$ is because our parents worked their asses off to give it to us so we could do the same to our children. That has nothing to do with ethnicity it has to do with wether you worked to get where you are or just complained about 'unfair treatment'. And sure we took the land or had slaves but we are trying to say sorry and help them out. And in reality other people have better chances then whites and it's all based off of stereo types. Like Asians are smart so they get scholarships and African Americans get let off of crimes they have committed because police are afriad to be called racist
Honestly, I don't really think I should have to say sorry for something my "ancestors" did hundreds of years ago. Yes, I'm white. That doesn't mean I've done anything wrong.
Am I talking to a wall here? I said it twice and I'll say it again. WE'RE NOT ASKING YOU TO APOLOGIZE FOR SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR, AKA THE ACTIONS OF YOUR ANCESTORS. Please don't pull that "I don't think I did I anything wrong" shit again. Because YOU didn't! And I know that! What I'm trying to tell you is that shit happened so don't act like it didn't like it doesnt still effect people today. That doesnt mean apologize, it means recognize your privilege as what it is and not others not working as hard. Somebody could've made cars that ran on water and we wouldnt have nearly as much pollution we have now but IN REALTY someone made something that revaluationized transportation but had a huge negative effect also, so we're focusing on how to fix the pollution, not trying to get car companies to apologize. Do you get it know? And jokur_and_batmon, please give me some evidence that white people have it hard because some of that is actually laughable that you believe it.
Goddamn the whole "ancestors" argument is starting to sound like a broken record. Whatever happened to the sins of the father upon his own head, and the sins of the child upon theirs?
I'm dropping the "ancestors" argument but I will say, it's not that minorities find it more difficult to succeed (or find successful jobs, etc.), it's that some of them find it easier to claim that's why they don't succeed. nowadays companies are forced to hire a certain number of minorities, so they might need to reject white candidates to fill numbers. colleges give scholarships based solely on race (ehem, that's prejudice). Morgan Freeman said he doesn't like how there is a black history month. "Black history is American history." he said there's not white history month, or Jewish history month. further more, he said THE WAY TO END RACISM IS TO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. but for some reason people keep claiming it's around, when, for the most part, it's not and bringing it up again.
How are you going to tell a whole race of people what does and doesnt exist in their daily lives? I'll stop bringing it up when I stop experiencing it. I don't want to hear about how you feel about something that you don't experience. That's like saying the way to ease tensions around 9/11 is to not acknowledge it at all cause people are not being blown up in buildings anymore with no facts backing you up. Y'all act like those 500+ years of building the country off us didn't build you up while forcing us down. Tearing us down every time we try to rise up from the ashes and demonizing us when we look dusty. Rethink your argument and try again.
But I do experience it. I'm Indian (as in my grandfather was from India). But he also told me "the reason you can't find a job, got a bad grade, or get treated any way is the color of your skin and the culture you portray, it is the character you show. " very similar to Martin Luther King of I remember correctly. Yes I've gotten racial slurs but I have never once in my entire life thought my white friends or coworkers were privileged. And maybe if everyone stopped accusing them of it we could focus on real problems like unemployment and stuff.
Do you understand what privileged means? Its not always that you were born rich or dont get racially discriminated against, its that you don't get these things done to you as much or as maliciously as another groups. so you might have bad stuff going on but other people have it worst and you're saying that this huge difference doesn't exist. Are you telling me that you really think that racism isnt still a problem? Dude do you live under a rock? You gon sit here and tell me 500+ years of free labor constructing this country and the economy behind it, filling the pockets of the wealthy with more money and the minds of the poor with savage and animalistic notions of people of color with no restoration or compensation to the people who were oppressed doesn't still effect us today? With no other tragedy in history do we urge the people who were effected to forget it. Not saying that white people are bad, but whether they like it or not, they do carry some sort of privilege.
maybe the rich carry privilege, but not white people. and there are rich people of all races. sure, white people probably dominate that, too, but the fact that those people are privileged has to do with money, not race. not in the least. at least not nowadays. why is it that if a black man shoots a white teenager it only makes it to the local news, but if a white/Hispanic man shoots a black teenager it's international disaster? (yes that actually happened around the same time)
Yes white people do carry privilege. In simplest terms, white people get to be the default race. They get to see themselves portrayed everywhere from magazines to movies; lighter skin is considered better to the point that many young girls, including myself, go to extremes not to be in the sun too long less we dare to darken our skin anymore. People in general but mostly white people like to tease and ridicule us about our natural features and then either pay to look like us or steal our stuff and "discover" it without giving us credit. White people don't represent their whole race; if a black person shoots up a school he and black culture are savages but if a white dude does the same he himself is just a lone lunatic. The media even portrays black victims of murder worst than the killers, showing past police records if they can find them and questionable pictures if they can't while the white murders are described as quite and diligent students with flattering pictures.
Try to see things from another race's point of view. This, along with discussing our views together to understand each other is how we ease race relations. We can't solve anything by not acknowledging the problem, even if you don't feel its that big of a deal because other people do and its obviously for a reason. Do research, and not just half assed facts, go in depth to the roots of these problems and maybe you'll see what we mean.
I'm really not sure what beauty standards you're into, because as far as I've seen being tan is more attractive. tanning salons, tanning lotion, tanning oil, bronzer. nowhere in any makeup department I've been to have I ever seen has ever sold skin lightening anything. and yes, there are more white actors, teachers, everything, because there's more white people in general. sometimes I myself do feel out of place, especially when I'm with my grandma and she's in her sari (traditional Indian scarf). but I know that it's not their fault, it's just how America is, because it was founded by Europeans. I have been to both England and Italy and felt the same way but no one publicly shamed me for it. and some people might say it's because at one point their were more Irish white slaves than black slaves. I understand feelings of insecurity and discomfort, but I don't understand blaming white people as a whole just for being white. it's the very definition of prejudice
I'm not really sure if you're getting what I'm saying so I'll try to explain it some more. People in general but mostly white people will slander black people for their dark skin but then, like you said, pay to get our color skin and call it beautiful. They will tease us because of our big lips and then splurge on lip injections to look cute. They will go out of their way to get box braids and call it a new discovery after laughing at the black girls that get them for a reason and have been wearing them as a style for years. They think African features are beautiful, just not on african people. Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. And yes there are more white people in general but that doesn't excuse the racially biased casting in the industry. My little sister shouldn't grow up wishing she was another race because all she ever sees anywhere are pretty white girls.
I don't blame white people for just being white, I blame most of them from benefiting from structural racism and slavery and don't even try to tell me to forget about my history like its not relevant to the present. Y'all remember every other tragic event in history but always tell black people to get over it. Are you saying that 500+ in the least (not to mention other aspects of history) years of free labor that you never paid back is not gonna set that particular group up for success? See how stupid you sound? White people have privileges, even over you, and I blame them for not acknowledging them and justifing the privileges with notions that people of color are "just not working as hard as I did". You can work as hard as you want, but if the nation is built on the false premises that your race are savages, dumb and lazy on top of the 500+ years of oppression, your not going to do well in that nation. That's what I blame them for whether or not theyre responsible for the root of it
I don't care about the downvotes you got. Thanks for these two comments.
Plus, these views on what "white privilege" is believed to be are fundamentally racist.