Do you agree with Dr. King, White People?

[Michael Hardner]

 Whose club is this ?  I can't see most of the posts here, as I have blocked the phalanx of Russian zombie posters who are actively contributing to this site's retardation.

[OftenWrong]

7 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

Seriously though... "white privilege isn't real... I know a poor white person"...

At least TRY 

Read what else I have said. Simply saying "No" is not a try. I have said my part enough already, now its your turn to waste this forums bandwidth. You give it a try.

[Tdot]

30 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

Seriously though... "white privilege isn't real... 

No matter how much you troll this topic, you cannot change the facts about the real USA. I stand with an old friend of ours, from an earlier thread...See, look:

 

 

by Robert Jensen

Here's what white privilege sounds like:

I am sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support.

The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.

So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I ask.

He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter."

That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what it means.

That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with students. It drove home to me the importance of confronting the dirty secret that we white people carry around with us everyday: In a world of white privilege, some of what we have is unearned. I think much of both the fear and anger that comes up around discussions of affirmative action has its roots in that secret. So these days, my goal is to talk openly and honestly about white supremacy and white privilege.

White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their lives, I talk about how it has affected me.

I am as white as white gets in this country. I am of northern European heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white world surrounded by racism, both personal and institutional. Because I didn't live near a reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the state's only numerically significant non-white population, American Indians.

I have struggled to resist that racist training and the ongoing racism of my culture. I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. But no matter how much I "fix" myself, one thing never changes--I walk through the world with white privilege.

What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly, when I seek admission to a university, apply for a job, or hunt for an apartment, I don't look threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating me for those things look like me--they are white. They see in me a reflection of themselves, and in a racist world that is an advantage. I smile. I am white. I am one of them. I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical opinions, I am cut some slack. After all, I'm white.

My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I am white. Some complain that affirmative action has meant the university is saddled with mediocre minority professors. I have no doubt there are minority faculty who are mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. once pointed out, if affirmative action policies were in place for the next hundred years, it's possible that at the end of that time the university could have as many mediocre minority professors as it has mediocre white professors. That isn't meant as an insult to anyone, but is a simple observation that white privilege has meant that scores of second-rate white professors have slid through the system because their flaws were overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as well as on gender, class and ideology.

Some people resist the assertions that the United States is still a bitterly racist society and that the racism has real effects on real people. But white folks have long cut other white folks a break. I know, because I am one of them.

I am not a genius--as I like to say, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have been teaching full-time for six years, and I've published a reasonable amount of scholarship. Some of it is the unexceptional stuff one churns out to get tenure, and some of it, I would argue, actually is worth reading. I work hard, and I like to think that I'm a fairly decent teacher. Every once in awhile, I leave my office at the end of the day feeling like I really accomplished something. When I cash my paycheck, I don't feel guilty.

But, all that said, I know I did not get where I am by merit alone. I benefited from, among other things, white privilege. That doesn't mean that I don't deserve my job, or that if I weren't white I would never have gotten the job. It means simply that all through my life, I have soaked up benefits for being white. I grew up in fertile farm country taken by force from non-white indigenous people. I was educated in a well-funded, virtually all-white public school system in which I learned that white people like me made this country great. There I also was taught a variety of skills, including how to take standardized tests written by and for white people.

All my life I have been hired for jobs by white people. I was accepted for graduate school by white people. And I was hired for a teaching position at the predominantly white University of Texas, which had a white president, in a college headed by a white dean and in a department with a white chairman that at the time had one non-white tenured professor.

There certainly is individual variation in experience. Some white people have had it easier than me, probably because they came from wealthy families that gave them even more privilege. Some white people have had it tougher than me because they came from poorer families. White women face discrimination I will never know. But, in the end, white people all have drawn on white privilege somewhere in their lives.

Like anyone, I have overcome certain hardships in my life. I have worked hard to get where I am, and I work hard to stay there. But to feel good about myself and my work, I do not have to believe that "merit," as defined by white people in a white country, alone got me here. I can acknowledge that in addition to all that hard work, I got a significant boost from white privilege, which continues to protect me every day of my life from certain hardships.

At one time in my life, I would not have been able to say that, because I needed to believe that my success in life was due solely to my individual talent and effort. I saw myself as the heroic American, the rugged individualist. I was so deeply seduced by the culture's mythology that I couldn't see the fear that was binding me to those myths. Like all white Americans, I was living with the fear that maybe I didn't really deserve my success, that maybe luck and privilege had more to do with it than brains and hard work. I was afraid I wasn't heroic or rugged, that I wasn't special.

I let go of some of that fear when I realized that, indeed, I wasn't special, but that I was still me. What I do well, I still can take pride in, even when I know that the rules under which I work in are stacked in my benefit. I believe that until we let go of the fiction that people have complete control over their fate--that we can will ourselves to be anything we choose--then we will live with that fear. Yes, we should all dream big and pursue our dreams and not let anyone or anything stop us. But we all are the product both of what we will ourselves to be and what the society in which we live lets us be.

White privilege is not something I get to decide whether or not I want to keep. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege. There is not space here to list all the ways in which white privilege plays out in our daily lives, but it is clear that I will carry this privilege with me until the day white supremacy is erased from this society.

Frankly, I don't think I will live to see that day; I am realistic about the scope of the task. However, I continue to have hope, to believe in the creative power of human beings to engage the world honestly and act morally. A first step for white people, I think, is to not be afraid to admit that we have benefited from white privilege. It doesn't mean we are frauds who have no claim to our success. It means we face a choice about what we do with our success.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Tdot

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Tdot said:

No matter how much you troll this topic, you cannot change the facts about the real USA. I stand with an old friend of ours, from an earlier thread...See, look:

Can I just be the first to say that's hilarious!

[OftenWrong]

35 minutes ago, Tdot said:

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Yep.

[Tdot]

50 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Yep.

Your choice to now take words out of, context, does highlight your juvenile delinquency which you love to burden this great website with.  

You realize that your argument on White Privilege, is inept and deficient, therefore your hurt feelings can only resort to immature games in here. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Tdot

[Marocc]

11 minutes ago, Tdot said:

this great website

Lets not exaggerate

[Michael Hardner]

14 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

No, because it does not exist. I can point to plenty of white people who are just as underprivileged.

If White people are doing better on the whole, saying that 'plenty' - which isn't even quantified - of Whites do badly doesn't even address the first part of the argument.

The argument again the numbers assertion would simply be presented as a graph showing the numbers of Whites and Blacks on the Y axis and with incomes on the X axis.  But doing that wouldn't win this attack on the argument.

And that's only one part of the argument anyway, not the important part which is whether some policy would be a good idea or not.

[Iceni warrior]

Quote

When you are accustomed to privilege equality seems like oppression

 

[Tdot]

19 hours ago, Marocc said:

Lets not exaggerate

I agree, so I did not exaggerate.

 

In my first ten days here I could tell that there are three (3) perhaps four (4) narcissists burdening this great website for a long time now ---from what I could tell so far. Without those three (especially my hurt-hearted daughter) in their fatuity-faction, this forum's greatness could shoot to Mars w/o oxygen tanks! lol

Edited April 21, 2020 by Tdot

[Michael Hardner]

21 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

 Whose club is this ?  I can't see most of the posts here, as I have blocked the phalanx of Russian zombie posters who are actively contributing to this site's retardation.

Anybody have an answer ?

[OftenWrong]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

Anybody have an answer ?

Maybe you have blocked yourself?

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

Maybe you have blocked yourself?

[Teena]

On 4/20/2020 at 10:50 PM, Tdot said:

No matter how much you troll this topic, you cannot change the facts about the real USA. I stand with an old friend of ours, from an earlier thread...See, look:

 

 

by Robert Jensen

Here's what white privilege sounds like:

I am sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support.

The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.

So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I ask.

He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter."

That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what it means.

That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with students. It drove home to me the importance of confronting the dirty secret that we white people carry around with us everyday: In a world of white privilege, some of what we have is unearned. I think much of both the fear and anger that comes up around discussions of affirmative action has its roots in that secret. So these days, my goal is to talk openly and honestly about white supremacy and white privilege.

White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their lives, I talk about how it has affected me.

I am as white as white gets in this country. I am of northern European heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white world surrounded by racism, both personal and institutional. Because I didn't live near a reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the state's only numerically significant non-white population, American Indians.

I have struggled to resist that racist training and the ongoing racism of my culture. I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. But no matter how much I "fix" myself, one thing never changes--I walk through the world with white privilege.

What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly, when I seek admission to a university, apply for a job, or hunt for an apartment, I don't look threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating me for those things look like me--they are white. They see in me a reflection of themselves, and in a racist world that is an advantage. I smile. I am white. I am one of them. I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical opinions, I am cut some slack. After all, I'm white.

My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I am white. Some complain that affirmative action has meant the university is saddled with mediocre minority professors. I have no doubt there are minority faculty who are mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. once pointed out, if affirmative action policies were in place for the next hundred years, it's possible that at the end of that time the university could have as many mediocre minority professors as it has mediocre white professors. That isn't meant as an insult to anyone, but is a simple observation that white privilege has meant that scores of second-rate white professors have slid through the system because their flaws were overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as well as on gender, class and ideology.

Some people resist the assertions that the United States is still a bitterly racist society and that the racism has real effects on real people. But white folks have long cut other white folks a break. I know, because I am one of them.

I am not a genius--as I like to say, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have been teaching full-time for six years, and I've published a reasonable amount of scholarship. Some of it is the unexceptional stuff one churns out to get tenure, and some of it, I would argue, actually is worth reading. I work hard, and I like to think that I'm a fairly decent teacher. Every once in awhile, I leave my office at the end of the day feeling like I really accomplished something. When I cash my paycheck, I don't feel guilty.

But, all that said, I know I did not get where I am by merit alone. I benefited from, among other things, white privilege. That doesn't mean that I don't deserve my job, or that if I weren't white I would never have gotten the job. It means simply that all through my life, I have soaked up benefits for being white. I grew up in fertile farm country taken by force from non-white indigenous people. I was educated in a well-funded, virtually all-white public school system in which I learned that white people like me made this country great. There I also was taught a variety of skills, including how to take standardized tests written by and for white people.

All my life I have been hired for jobs by white people. I was accepted for graduate school by white people. And I was hired for a teaching position at the predominantly white University of Texas, which had a white president, in a college headed by a white dean and in a department with a white chairman that at the time had one non-white tenured professor.

There certainly is individual variation in experience. Some white people have had it easier than me, probably because they came from wealthy families that gave them even more privilege. Some white people have had it tougher than me because they came from poorer families. White women face discrimination I will never know. But, in the end, white people all have drawn on white privilege somewhere in their lives.

Like anyone, I have overcome certain hardships in my life. I have worked hard to get where I am, and I work hard to stay there. But to feel good about myself and my work, I do not have to believe that "merit," as defined by white people in a white country, alone got me here. I can acknowledge that in addition to all that hard work, I got a significant boost from white privilege, which continues to protect me every day of my life from certain hardships.

At one time in my life, I would not have been able to say that, because I needed to believe that my success in life was due solely to my individual talent and effort. I saw myself as the heroic American, the rugged individualist. I was so deeply seduced by the culture's mythology that I couldn't see the fear that was binding me to those myths. Like all white Americans, I was living with the fear that maybe I didn't really deserve my success, that maybe luck and privilege had more to do with it than brains and hard work. I was afraid I wasn't heroic or rugged, that I wasn't special.

I let go of some of that fear when I realized that, indeed, I wasn't special, but that I was still me. What I do well, I still can take pride in, even when I know that the rules under which I work in are stacked in my benefit. I believe that until we let go of the fiction that people have complete control over their fate--that we can will ourselves to be anything we choose--then we will live with that fear. Yes, we should all dream big and pursue our dreams and not let anyone or anything stop us. But we all are the product both of what we will ourselves to be and what the society in which we live lets us be.

White privilege is not something I get to decide whether or not I want to keep. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege. There is not space here to list all the ways in which white privilege plays out in our daily lives, but it is clear that I will carry this privilege with me until the day white supremacy is erased from this society.

Frankly, I don't think I will live to see that day; I am realistic about the scope of the task. However, I continue to have hope, to believe in the creative power of human beings to engage the world honestly and act morally. A first step for white people, I think, is to not be afraid to admit that we have benefited from white privilege. It doesn't mean we are frauds who have no claim to our success. It means we face a choice about what we do with our success.

Hi Tdot, what a long post! As I am reading your comments, I kept thinking not many white folk are immigrating to China, the ME, Africa, Asia, etc..... think about what you are saying? If you want your so called white privilege taken away because you feel guilty or something, move to a non-white country or an area not too far from my home where many Muslims have immigrated too now. Canada and the US are great places to live for all people of all colors and race. I would NEVER think of immigrating to any other country yet we have millions of brown, black, yellow...etc flocking to Canada and the US.  I am white, I worked real hard, I struggled....never felt like I got thru life and many of its challenges because of white privilege? Not once. 

[Tdot]

5 hours ago, Teena said:

 If you want your so called white privilege taken away because you feel guilty or something, move to a non-white country ... I am white, I worked real hard, I struggled....never felt like I got thru life and many of its challenges because of white privilege? Not once. 

Hi, Teena!  Thanks for sharing your thoughts here!!  Although IMHO, your thoughts are very unfortunate to read here.  It makes me sad that you feel like I should move yes then have my White Privilege taken away. 

I am a dual USA/Canadian citizen. Therefore I never talked about moving anywhere nor having my White Privilege taken away, so I think it's very unfair of you to come in here suggesting that.

Why should I have to move? Why is that your mindset?!!! Why did you not say, we need to stop subjugating our Negro citizens with our White Privilege? Why is that, not, the solution you promoted here? It's not like, you don't ever see or don't recognize, White Privilege.

...

And remember too, it does not matter if we feel like we DON'T get to enjoy White Privilege in our livelihoods. No. We do not get to make that choice ---it is already made for you, when you exit a Caucasian womb within a White-controlled Democracy, anywhere on earth. I like the way Robert Jensen puts it here:

 

 

Quote

White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their lives, I talk about how it has affected me.
 ...  

White privilege is not something I get to decide whether or not I want to keep. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege. There is not space here to list all the ways in which white privilege plays out in our daily lives, but it is clear that I will carry this privilege with me until the day white supremacy is erased from this society.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tdot

[Marocc]

6 hours ago, Teena said:

or an area not too far from my home where many Muslims have immigrated too now.

When people go from city A to city
B or house A to house B etc., it's called moving.

7 hours ago, Teena said:

Canada and the US are great places to live for all people of all colors and race.

Except everyone who isn't 'white'.

7 hours ago, Teena said:

we have millions of brown, black, yellow...etc

7 hours ago, Teena said:

 I am white, I worked real hard, I struggled....never felt like I got thru life and many of its challenges because of white privilege? Not once. 

'white privilege' isn't the same as having as 'easy life'. E.g. just because your house isn't that great, doesn't mean it isn't better than mine. Besides, the fact that an individual complains a lot doesn't mean they're having a more difficult time.

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, Marocc said:

'white privilege' isn't the same as having as 'easy life'. E.g. just because your house isn't that great, doesn't mean it isn't better than mine. Besides, the fact that an individual complains a lot doesn't mean they're having a more difficult time.

defn: a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.
https://www.google.com/search?q=privilege

[Michael Hardner]

You can have an advantage and not actually realize gains from it.

For example, if you are white and stupid you may not end up better off than a black person with high intelligence.  Nonetheless your white skin may have given you an advantage.

The fact that so many people try to argue that the existence of poor whites is proof that white privilege doesn't exist... without getting shouted down by fellow white idiots, is a kind of proof of white privilege.

[dialamah]

8 hours ago, Teena said:

I am white, I worked real hard, I struggled....never felt like I got thru life and many of its challenges because of white privilege? Not once. 

Every time you applied for a job, your name and your skin color beat out someone with a foreign-sounding name and dark skin, even when your qualifications were identical.

When you, with your white skin, walk into a place of business, the service you receive is generally faster, more congenial and sometimes economically advantageous than service received by someone with darker skin.

If you want to see this in action from the other side, walk into certain stores in Richmond and notice how the sales people glance at you, and then ignore you.  Sure, you can shop there and they'll take your money, but it's pretty clear - without a word being said - that you are not the customer they want. 

Most white people in Western countries don't experience these subtle clues in their daily life; most people of color do.  "Privilege" is often invisible to those receiving it.  In other countries, the same kind of "privilege" is extended to their power class (not necessarily the majority), and their recipients are usually as oblivious to their privilege as you are.  

Just because you struggled doesn't mean you didn't benefit from being white in a country where the power holders are primarily white.  

[Teena]

4 hours ago, Tdot said:

Hi, Teena!  Thanks for sharing your thoughts here!!  Although IMHO, your thoughts are very unfortunate to read here.  It makes me sad that you feel like I should move yes then have my White Privilege taken away.  Well Tdot, what do you expect? I don't agree with white privilege. My point is, that if you immigrated to China or something and raised a family there, you would not experience white privilege so all your accomplishments would have nothing to do with a white man hiring you!  You seem to be sad and at times struggling with your so called white privilege. Honestly I am sad for our Country and disappointed with immigration and eventually there will be fewer and fewer white people here anyways. It's happening now. So enjoy your so called white privilege while you still can. 

...anywhere nor having my White Privilege taken away, so I think it's very unfair of you to come in here suggesting that. Sorry I was just trying to make a point. 

Why should I have to move? Why is that your mindset?!!! Why did you not say, we need to stop subjugating our Negro citizens with our White Privilege? Why is that, not, the solution you promoted here? It's not like, you don't ever see or don't recognize, White Privilege. In my experience I have been mistreated from both people of colour and white. 

...

And remember too, it does not matter if we feel like we DON'T get to enjoy White Privilege in our livelihoods. No. We do not get to make that choice ---it is already made for you, when you exit a Caucasian womb within a White-controlled Democracy, anywhere on earth. So people who are not white, living in a, let's say mostly black country, they have black privilege? 

 

 

 

 

[Tdot]

35 minutes ago, Teena said:

So people who are not white, living in a, let's say mostly black country, they have black privilege? 

It's not our responsibility to know that, so I cannot say. I really wish I had the info you seek.

Nonetheless, if those nations exist, then they are independent of and irrelevant to the way we Caucasians in North America use our White Privilege to subjugate and oppress our fellow citizens who are negros. As we lie to them about Equality and Democracy ---then get angry at them, over the need for Afformative Action, as if it is negros' fault that we Whites are racist.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tdot

[Teena]

2 hours ago, Tdot said:

It's not our responsibility to know that, so I cannot say. I really wish I had the info you seek.

Nonetheless, if those nations exist, then they are independent of and irrelevant to the way we Caucasians in North America use our White Privilege to subjugate and oppress our fellow citizens who are negros. As we lie to them about Equality and Democracy ---then get angry at them, over the need for Afformative Action, as if it is negros' fault that we Whites are racist.

Thanks Tdot. I truly am not seeking more info. In my twenties I had a close lady friend that was black. We got along excellent. Lots of the same likes. Her sister was getting married and she was excited to be in the wedding party. Long story short, some of her other friends, whom were black were going to just the Church ceremony. When I wanted to go I could not believe what I was hearing. She said she did not want me to come because I would be the only white person there and her sister would not appreciate that. I was shocked. Who was racist? It hurt for sure. Can't we just all get along?

[Tdot]

5 hours ago, Teena said:

Thanks Tdot. I truly am not seeking more info. In my twenties I had a close lady friend that was black. We got along excellent. Lots of the same likes. Her sister was getting married and she was excited to be in the wedding party. Long story short, some of her other friends, whom were black were going to just the Church ceremony. When I wanted to go I could not believe what I was hearing. She said she did not want me to come because I would be the only white person there and her sister would not appreciate that. I was shocked. Who was racist? It hurt for sure. Can't we just all get along?

There's a huge difference between Racism vs Hatred and/or Prejudice.

A wedding is not a public event like applying for a good job or a mortgage in a white area or applying for a wealthy country club/social status or being stopped by police. Which means that Black people not wanting you at the wedding was, prejudice, but that is on a micro scale specifically regarding a wedding ---which means, that does not compare to any macro scale Racism--- because you not being at a wedding does not change the fact that you can enjoy things in North America which negros cannot enjoy in that society thanks to you being White.

The wedding was their Prejudicial power unit. That is a personal, private ordeal.  Therefore it is about Prejudice and not racism. Those negros need some type of power, publicly, that they can hold over you in order for it to be a case of Racism.

Peace, sister.

...

 

check out this video too ... see if it's just comedy or --- art imitating real life?

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tdot

[Tdot]

8 hours ago, dialamah said:

Every time you applied for a job, your name and your skin color beat out someone with a foreign-sounding name and dark skin, even when your qualifications were identical.

When you, with your white skin, walk into a place of business, the service you receive is generally faster, more congenial and sometimes economically advantageous than service received by someone with darker skin.

If you want to see this in action from the other side, walk into certain stores in Richmond and notice how the sales people glance at you, and then ignore you.  Sure, you can shop there and they'll take your money, but it's pretty clear - without a word being said - that you are not the customer they want. 

Most white people in Western countries don't experience these subtle clues in their daily life; most people of color do.  "Privilege" is often invisible to those receiving it.  In other countries, the same kind of "privilege" is extended to their power class (not necessarily the majority), and their recipients are usually as oblivious to their privilege as you are.  

Just because you struggled doesn't mean you didn't benefit from being white in a country where the power holders are primarily white.  

This, is beautiful.

[Tdot]

8 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

The fact that so many people try to argue that the existence of poor whites is proof that white privilege doesn't exist... without getting shouted down by fellow white idiots, is a kind of proof of white privilege.

True, indeed.  

Professor Robert Jensen addressed that exact reality here:

 

17 hours ago, Teena said:

...The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.

So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I ask.

He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter."

That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what it means.

...

That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with students.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tdot