White Privileged Like Me

[dcbii]

I think it does no good to talk about “white privilege” if we can’t talk about good solutions at the same time. And I have to say this — what many of those talking about “white privilege” say are the solutions are clearly non-starters for most of the majority.

What point are you trying to make? That we should discuss it because there could be solutions? Or since there are no good solutions we shouldn’t mention it? I’m not quite understanding where you’re going.

As to solutions, I’m not sure it’s an equation. I’m saying those who pretend minorities are, for lack of a better term, whining, come across as unwilling to hear someone else’s pain. To dismiss this out of hand is more than a pittance of hubris. God’s people have always been in the minority, which should make us more sensitive to the plight of those who start with an uphill battle.

Back to what the majority should do? Listen, acknowledge, get to know people outside of our typical lily white circles. Make every attempt to cut racial discrimination from our lives and pass that to our children. Be willing to stand with victims of injustice. Don’t allow overt or subtle racism to go unchecked. Just some simple things like that would be a good start.

“Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off” (quoting Taylor Swift - no doubt a first on SI)

[dmicah] Can you or others speak knowledgeably to this topic if you don’t have American friends of color?

You have fallen prey to political liberalism in this regard and you need to shake it off!

Many of my Jamaican friends have migrated to the US and my dearest friend from my senior year in high school lives in VA. A number of years ago, he told me that American companies hire non-American blacks for the single reason that they don’t come with the victimhood baggage that American blacks do. He and his wife’s combined income every 2 years is greater than my cumulative income for the past 35 years, so clearly I have no advantage over him because of white privilege.

A number of those who have migrated from Jamaica have started churches in the north-east and this year the fellowship of those churches will hold their 25th anniversary conference. I serve on the board but have been unable to attend the event for the past few years because of financial constraints.

One of the saddest things I have observed has to do with the American born children of those who migrated to the US. I am friends with some of them on FB, and one young lady in posting on the shooting of Brown in Jefferson last year, wrote about white cops driving through black neighborhoods looking for black boys to shoot. She had read an article and concluded that Brown had been shot gang-land style by the police. I read the article and it was written in a way that would lead someone who was convinced that white cops assassinate black boys, into just that conclusion, even though the article didn’t say that.

The problem is that the shuck and jive dudes of the Jackson and Sharpton ilk, are not interested in resolving racism in this country because they profit by promoting the notion of racism, and shaking down large companies.

How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations

There is an article in the weekend Wall St Journal titled, Shelby Steele’s Thankless Task (may need a subscription to read).

…people who, despite their endless cries for social justice, in one way or another have a deep emotional if not financial investment in keeping black Americans in the sad conditions in which so many of them continue to find themselves

…what takes courage is telling truth to listeners who have grown accustomed to thinking themselves victims, have accepted the ultimately inadequate benefits of victimhood and, touchier than a fresh burn, take offense at the least criticism.

As far as I’m concerned, the notion of white privilege is not real, and victimizes black Americans who feel it. We don’t help people by embracing the lies that they are led to believe, and white privilege is one of those lies that folks need to shake off.

[dmicah] ​

What point are you trying to make?

That as long as solutions put forward by those screaming about “white privilege” are going to make the division worse instead of better, it really doesn’t do much good to grant their point, or even acknowledge it. Once the point is granted, then the majority will be pushed into implementing those “solutions” that are not helpful long-term to eliminate the problem. When we talk about solutions that can work that both sides can agree on, then real progress will be made.

Back to what the majority should do? Listen, acknowledge, get to know people outside of our typical lily white circles. Make every attempt to cut racial discrimination from our lives and pass that to our children.

Not only is that reasonable, it’s what I already do. In fact, I do have one black friend of the type you mention, someone I have known for over 20 years, and although this person moved away a couple years ago, we still call, she visits with my wife and I when she returns to see her family, and we are close in every way friends can be. However, it is just one friend, not multiple, though I have close friends of other races. And I’m sure she wouldn’t be considered a good example by the minority, since she worked her way up from her very modest non-middle-class background to the point where she is now the assistant chief of operations of the medical school of an American university. We knew her when she was “just” a secretary, and our friendship has not changed even though she now moves in circles much above mine.

Also, with my children, I taught them what I believe, which is essentially race blindness. I don’t actually believe in “race,” and I have treated people of all colors and nationalities we have known, not just black, as equals in every way, neither better nor worse than our white family. I have not concentrated on any differences; in fact I’ve gone out of my way to ignore them, because I don’t believe the problems between “races” will go away until we just don’t notice “race” any more — all we see is people. And although that thinking (race blindness) is out of fashion with the liberal intelligentsia these days, I think it’s quite in keeping with “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

[JohnBrian]

“Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off” (quoting Taylor Swift - no doubt a first on SI)

dmicah wrote:

Can you or others speak knowledgeably to this topic if you don’t have American friends of color?

You have fallen prey to political liberalism in this regard and you need to shake it off!

Many of my Jamaican friends have migrated to the US and my dearest friend from my senior year in high school lives in VA. A number of years ago, he told me that American companies hire non-American blacks for the single reason that they don’t come with the victimhood baggage that American blacks do. He and his wife’s combined income every 2 years is greater than my cumulative income for the past 35 years, so clearly I have no advantage over him because of white privilege.

A number of those who have migrated from Jamaica have started churches in the north-east and this year the fellowship of those churches will hold their 25th anniversary conference. I serve on the board but have been unable to attend the event for the past few years because of financial constraints.

One of the saddest things I have observed has to do with the American born children of those who migrated to the US. I am friends with some of them on FB, and one young lady in posting on the shooting of Brown in Jefferson last year, wrote about white cops driving through black neighborhoods looking for black boys to shoot. She had read an article and concluded that Brown had been shot gang-land style by the police. I read the article and it was written in a way that would lead someone who was convinced that white cops assassinate black boys, into just that conclusion, even though the article didn’t say that.

The problem is that the shuck and jive dudes of the Jackson and Sharpton ilk, are not interested in resolving racism in this country because they profit by promoting the notion of racism, and shaking down large companies.

How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations

There is an article in the weekend Wall St Journal titled, Shelby Steele’s Thankless Task (may need a subscription to read).

…people who, despite their endless cries for social justice, in one way or another have a deep emotional if not financial investment in keeping black Americans in the sad conditions in which so many of them continue to find themselves

…what takes courage is telling truth to listeners who have grown accustomed to thinking themselves victims, have accepted the ultimately inadequate benefits of victimhood and, touchier than a fresh burn, take offense at the least criticism.

As far as I’m concerned, the notion of white privilege is not real, and victimizes black Americans who feel it. We don’t help people by embracing the lies that they are led to believe, and white privilege is one of those lies that folks need to shake off.

John Brian,

So you are going with the Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson argument for dismissing White Privilege? By choosing these race-baiters/race-profiteers as your normative reason for rejecting white privilege, you have created quite the strawman argument which is much easier to bash than the arguments that I presented. I can literally give hundreds of examples of racial profiling/bias that happened among the students and families to whom I minister in the inner-city that would not happen to you because of you are white! But of course being an urban missionary and having several thousand African-American students come through our programs for the past 23 years really doesn’t mean much to some people. On some of these situations, I was even mistaken by the police as a drug addict (because of course a 20 something year old young black man would never hang out with a middle-aged bald white man unless he was selling him drugs!). Also, I mentioned this story before, but I have a former white student of mine that got away with stealing thousands and thousands of dollars worth of merchandise at a mall over an extended period of time because he realized that all the mall security were following the black students! Oh the irony!

And of course the data from study after study that’s been done on racial bias backs up the fact that there is white privilege in many different arenas of life (health, housing, employment, consumer, and etc… http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/upshot/the-measuring-sticks-of-racial…

By the way, you might be surprised that I actually agree with much of what Shelby Steele says. I couldn’t access this article, but his books “The Content of Our Character” and “White Guilt” were good reads. He does a great job addressing the issues and destructive behavior patterns of victimhood and white guilt. But what I am trying to say is that acknowledging that white privilege does exist in America doesn’t have to lead to the unhealthy behaviors of black victimhood and white guilt! Of course there are some (especially the media pundits from the left) that publicly advocate this unhealthy way of thinking and then their solutions end up as another failed government social intervention program.

You have fallen prey to political liberalism in this regard and you need to shake it off!

If by political liberalism, you mean giving some thought and making some rational observations, then ok. Otherwise, no, I’m about as far from political liberalism as possible.

Also, any dude who injects Taylor Swift into an argument with a straight face should lose their man card for a period not to exceed thirty days. :D

I agree with Joel, you’re creating a straw man and have yet to really answer the question. Sharpton/Jackson are clowns, but their behavior has little to do with the overall discussion. But it’s not worth going in circles.

Be good…

The smart aleck in me wants to joke that almost no Minnesotan can speak to “white privilege” simply because it’s a state of pallor.

But seriously, that’s not exactly true, as there are a fair number of minorities of all shades if one will look around. My family gets to interact with a fair number of asians, Haitians, filipinas (Negros Island is actually named for the skin color of the people), and US-born african-americans. I would agree that there is very often a very different experience by the native born vs. immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa (and attitudes of the same), and of course there are lots of reasons for that.

One thought that occurs to me is that in interacting with those convinced that Michael Brown was basically murdered (I have, FWIW) is that there are some things that we can all support to really defuse the situation. Wouldn’t we all support dash cameras and body microphones/cameras on police so that instead of arguing about testimony, we can just say “roll tape”? (and then of course argue about whether the tape was edited, of course) Wouldn’t we all support taking a close look at the data and evaluating whether the prosecutors gave a fair shot to the grand jury—and work to remove them if they haven’t?

And on the flip side, we can point out that nobody ought to want to do double jeopardy and void the decisions of grand juries—the biggest advance in race relations in the past century is the notion that blacks ought to have the protection of the law, after all. But all in all, I’m thinking that there is a great amount of positive movement that we can achieve if we’re smart about it.

“Free your mind…the rest will follow. Be color blind…don’t be so shallow.”

I agree that white privilege, American privilege, Fericks privilege, European privilege exists. I also agree that many people have far less privilege than me. However, this does not require me to mope, make two token friends, or feel guilty. The solution to the disparity of privilege is to treat humans like humans.

There is not black or white race. There is only the human race. In the early 1800s, some people viewed humans as multiple races, and divided them in destructive and ungodly ways. Today, some people view humans as multiple races, and divide them in destructive and ungodly ways.

I don’t have white or black friends. I have friends.

[Sean Fericks]

“Free your mind…the rest will follow. Be color blind…don’t be so shallow.”

[…]

The solution to the disparity of privilege is to treat humans like humans.

There is not black or white race. There is only the human race.

[…]

I don’t have white or black friends. I have friends.

Amen.

[Sean Fericks]

“Free your mind…the rest will follow. Be color blind…don’t be so shallow.”

I agree that white privilege, American privilege, Fericks privilege, European privilege exists. I also agree that many people have far less privilege than me. However, this does not require me to mope, make two token friends, or feel guilty. The solution to the disparity of privilege is to treat humans like humans.

There is not black or white race. There is only the human race. In the early 1800s, some people viewed humans as multiple races, and divided them in destructive and ungodly ways. Today, some people view humans as multiple races, and divide them in destructive and ungodly ways.

I don’t have white or black friends. I have friends.

I’ll join Sean and Dave (?) in this, but it also strikes me that I would be a fool if I didn’t use what I know about a group’s experience to make bridges. For example, I had a wonderful conversation last night with a dear brother from Haiti, where he noted how hard it is for Americans to understand life in developing/third world countries unless we’ve been there. If we get out more—even just to read old National Geographics—we’re going to find a lot of treasures waiting for us in our ministries.