This article pretty much nails it on the head...
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
Tim Wise
http://www.timwise.org/
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a " in’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their in' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot " for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and cons utional law scholar, means you’re "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Cons ution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to , and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a " in’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their in' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot " for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and cons utional law scholar, means you’re "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Cons ution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to , and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Last edited by Supergirl; 09-16-2008 at 12:29 PM. Reason: Added reference
None of this has anything to do with white privilege. It's called "Presidential Ticket Candidate for One of the Two Major Parties Privilege."
If Sarah Palin was black, you'd hear the same excuses from Republicans. If Sarah Palin was a Democrat, Democrats would be the ones making those excuses. Suggesting Palin's immunity from criticism by Republicans has anything to do with her being white is pretty short-sighted.
Race Card isn't going to work...in fact it's just going to piss people off.
I get sick of my intelligence being insulted in an election where 95% of African Americans are expected to support Barrack Obama.
Bill O'Reilly hypocritically attacked Jamie Lynn Spears' mother while defending Sarah Palin... Must be because Spears is black.
The dems worst nightmares are black and women conservative role models.
Take the race card and shove it.
white privilege is where a super-rich ancient old man can call a black kid that was raised on foodstamps by a single mother an elitist.
All very good points. Let's hope Obama picks up on it and gives a grand speech on the evils of whitey.
Dude is right.............
Obama has already given a well-reasoned and powerful speech on racism, pretty much the exact opposite of the above blog entry by whoever this guy is.
intelligence?
I'm cool with the dems using the race card.
The White Supremacists support Ron Paul...this sort of article will actually probably get some of them to jump to McCain. Bad move for the D's.
The traditional Republican moderate racists were and aren't going to vote for Obama anyway...they weren't going to vote for any Democrat anyway.
The Republicans, Moderates and Democrats that want true equality are going to be the most offended by this sort of attempt to guilt trip the vote, any of them that are on the bubble are going to be pushed towards McCain by this sort of writing.
The racists that attempt to compensate for their racist inclinations are already Democrats and voting for Obama...to prove they aren't racists.
So basically who is this going to impact?
Well it's not going to impact African Americans...they are already supporting Obama.
Who is it going to impact? All the Hillary voters that haven't yet decided to switch to McCain...who already saw Obama and the Democrats play the race card on the Clintons and now see the attempted manipulation for what it is.
It's not going to work...Americans aren't going to elect a candidate just to prove racial equality.
I encourage the Democrats to drop this...it's going to blow up in their faces and cost them even more voters.
You already have the white guilt vote...it's only to get smaller if you keep pushing it.
Doesnt hide the fact that the article speaks the truth.
your judgement is clouded if you think that article speaks the truth. It is an election year, so you gotta do what you gotta do.
I don't think Tim Wise wrote this on behalf of Democrats. From the looks of it he's working on some kind of "guilty white guy" public speaking/book career so this is just a case of him opportunistically writing something relevant to current political events to get his name out there. Frankly, an Obama victory would not be in his best interests career-wise.
I honestly believe that a black, Hispanic or other minority would not have been asked to be vice president with Palins credentials. Her being white and attractive went a LONG LONG way. Sorry, that is just the way I see it.........and apparently the author of that article does as well.
White guilt is a powerful thing. Just because you didn't date people of color when you were younger doesn't mean you're inherently racist.
The race card has led to untold misery across the Africa and urban centers in North America. What else can explain why Hitler was rightly condemned but not Mugabe. Or why Stalin is rightly condemed, but not the dictator Mengistu of Ethiopia. Also why we rave about Larry Craig, but not Alcee Hastings. It seems that liberals want whites to be morally accountable, but not blacks.
Only the outreach of the gospel and the ministry through good works will heal the rifts between the races. Oh, but I forget, we can't impose our religion on anybody!!
women are in the same boat. If Sarah Palin was black or hispanic it would have made the pick that much better. McCain wanted a woman, regardless of color.
her being a conservative woman went a long way. Republicans adore minorities who subscribe to republicans ideals.Her being white and attractive went a LONG LONG way. Sorry, that is just the way I see it.........and apparently the author of that article does as well.
White Privilege is often being passed up for a job position so a less qualified minority can have it.
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People like WC make it possible for Tim Wise to have a career.
Not so much anymore. At least now it's getting rare. It used to be the commonplace.
What, bringing up a counterpoint to a stupid thread called "White Privilege?"
The 'privileges' had nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with having the finances to accomplish it, and the drive and commitment to follow it through.
Being honest about 'special rights' is not being against equal rights.
apples oranges IMO, but whatever.
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