White Privileged Like Me

I have seen this definition given for the term white privilege:

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What is white privilege?

White privilege is a set of advantages and/or immunities that white people benefit from on a daily basis beyond those common to all others. White privilege can exist without white people’s conscious knowledge of its presence and it helps to maintain the racial hierarchy in this country.

The biggest problem with white privilege is the invisibility it maintains to those who benefit from it most. The inability to recognize that many of the advantages whites hold are a direct result of the disadvantages of other people, contributes to the unwillingness of white people, even those who are not overtly racist, to recognize their part in maintaining and benefiting from white supremacy.

White privilege is about not having to worry about being followed in a department store while shopping. It’s about thinking that your clothes, manner of speech, and behavior in general, are racially neutral, when, in fact, they are white. It’s seeing your image on television daily and knowing that you’re being represented. It’s people assuming that you lead a constructive life free from crime and off welfare. It’s about not having to assume your daily interactions with people have racial overtones.

White privilege is having the freedom and luxury to fight racism one day and ignore it the next. White privilege exists on an individual, cultural, and institutional level.

“Being white means never having to think about it.”
-James Baldwin

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I’ve been the only “WASP” in a number of settings, including at least five church settings (two asian, three black), and I’ve got to confess that I’ve got limited patience for talk of “white privilege”. Sure, people have different cultural assumptions, different clothes, and the like, but are we under any impression that caucasian culture is monolithic? That whites do not need to adjust to different cultural assumptions, too? Those who would argue that white culture is somehow a de facto monolith really need to get out more IMO. Compare New York Italians and Jews with southern rednecks, Chicago Poles…. Doesn’t it come down to Paul’s note that he was a Jew to Jews, a Greek to Greeks….?

Really, the privilege that I’ve had in life is not my need for SPF 50 when I’m out in the sun, but rather parents who taught me how to work, taught me how to live, and the like. Stuff like “Son, get that ticket paid or your next interaction with the police officer will end in the graybar hotel.” Or, as Walter Williams would not, if you get your diploma and can read it, get a job, stay out of crime, and marry before having kids, you won’t likely be poor.

I agree that “white privilege” is a thing. But so is middle class. So is US Citizen. So is son of a businessman. Each of these comes with unearned privilege. Rather than apologize for the success of our forefathers (white, black, or otherwise), we should build upon that success, and help others attain their own success.

I am white, and my forefathers never owned slaves. Many black people have forefathers that did own slaves. I won’t mope around and feel guilty for my privileges. Rather, I will rejoice that God has given me great opportunity, and I will use that opportunity to glorify God by helping myself, my family, and others. One step to ending “white privilege” is to stop thinking about people in terms of skin color, and start seeing them as individuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqPqTfGxZbM

[Bert Perry] I’ve been the only “WASP” in a number of settings, including at least five church settings (two asian, three black), and I’ve got to confess that I’ve got limited patience for talk of “white privilege”.

Agreed!

I categorically reject the notion of white privilege and see it as one more way to create tension between races.

I can’t reject the principle of “white privilege” entirely, as I’ve been witness to some rather embarrassing behavior towards black people where caucasian friends of mine revealed that they believed all those nasty stereotypes. And confirmed a few of them about white people, to be sure.

But that said, I’ve got to guess that the factor of race pales before that of how you present yourself. To draw a picture from my own life, I used to have a flattop in college, and it struck me that I could save money by shaving my head instead of going to the barber once a month. Looked great on Michael Jordan! Then I realized that yes, when a black man shaved his head, there was a resemblance to #23, but when a young white man did so in those days, he was generally saying he was an Aryan Nations type.

So I kept the flattop, just as I never got into wearing t shirts from heavy metal bands, leather motorcycle gear, or the like. I knew it said something about me.

Another example; I once went to buy sheets in ratty jeans and a t shirt, and not surprisingly the sales-lady steered me towards the 50/50 poly/cotton blends. I kept my sense of humor about me, however, and boy was she surprised when I left with a set of the best sheets they had. She hadn’t even touched them before I suggested to her that she ought to feel how soft they were.

So if someone tries to tell me that nobody profiles white people….well, I guess I’ll tell ‘em some stories, won’t I?

“It’s about not having to assume your daily interactions with people have racial overtones.”

Seems to me that the “white privilege” crowd has a profiling/hypocrisy issue to deal with. If you’re going to go around assuming the worst about 80-90% of the population, you’ve got a real issue to deal with, and you are going to wind up with a chip on your shoulder.

(fwiw, I’m not assuming that Mark endorses the definition he posted - this isn’t an attack on Mark)

I am going to attempt to address white privilege from an urban missionary’s point of view. I will state the issue in the context of black and white people. even though I realize that the conglomeration of more and more people/ethnic groups in America continues to make this issue even more complicated.

When the subject of white privilege is brought up, I often hear two radically different responses by white people. The first is white guilt. Often times those who are more progressive and liberal in their worldview see the centuries of systematic racial injustice and oppression in our country. And despite all of the racial progress since the Jim Crow years, they realize that there are still advantages that white people have in life which have to do with their skin color. But as a way of trying to make the guilt go away, they try to do things that might bring forgiveness and acceptance in the eyes of black people. I’ve seen it all at anti-racism trainings, racial reconciliation meetings, diversity seminars and etc….. Letting black people know that they voted for Obama, actual groveling and apologizing on behalf of whites against blacks for every racial injustice that they can think of that happened in America, becoming the great white hope that will right the wrongs through aggressive government social redistribution programs. The last one becomes a form of racial paternalism, because it assumes that blacks are not capable of solving these problems without the help of the great white hope. (By the way, I’ve also seen some positive things come out of a few of these meetings as well……)

The second response is the one that I’ve observed here on Sharper Iron. It is a posture of white defensiveness. In my interactions with many whites that are quite defensive, I have been blown away that so many are closed to the idea that racism is still a problem, (although not nearly what it was 50 years ago). I can give example after examples of racism that many of my students and my friends have dealt with on a regular basis, but often times my words are met with suspicion. If I bring up that I know many instances of my students being followed at the mall, the typical response is “what were they wearing?” If I bring up instances where I know people that were unfairly stopped by the police, the overwhelming response seems to be to blame the people that were stopped. Its as if many unconsciously doubt the depraved sin nature with certain people with authority, but at the same time, they surely want to point it out with black people. By the way, I have seen several instances of my neighbors or students playing the race card in certain situations that weren’t motivated by race and I am quick to call that out too (I am an equal opportunity offender)

The assumption that many who are defensive with the term white privilege is that it is a politically correct term to drive a wedge between the races or a term that thinks the worst about white people. Or an excuse for certain people of color who are poor to stay in poverty and collect a government check.

Rather it is a phrase that helps people come to terms with the social-economic obstacles that many non-whites face in our country, that the many white people don’t realize. The privilege that we whites have is not a bad thing! Its nothing that I should feel guilty about. Rather it is something that I will try to help change so that all people have the same privileges that I have (but not through aggressive government social distribution programs).

By the way, here is a great article that shares and explains study after study that demonstrates there is a white privilege here in America. I like this article, because it also points out that when it comes to race, many of us have good intentions but may unconsciously have a racial bias. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/upshot/the-measuring-sticks-of-racial…

Also, as an urban missionary in my neighborhood where the majority of my students and their families are African-American, my response to the term white privilege cannot afford to be defensive, but must rather be cross-shaped along the lines of what Paul talks about in Phil. 2:1-11.

Joel, great summary of the issue regarding the two camps of reactions. For those turning this into a concept of image & profiling & being one in Christ, that’s actually a bit off point. White privilege is an intangible institution of sorts requiring complex analysis. In fact, the OP article really didn’t explain WP, but simply accepted it.

But it certainly exists. Acknowledging its existence and feeling guilty about being white are two different things. On one level, it’s simply history and math. I don’t feel the least bit guilty about US history or my race. I have control over neither.

On another level, it’s fairly insidious and arrogant when people in the majority refuse to listen to the minority when they explain an intangible sense of oppression, systemic institutional and statistically verifiable bias, and repeated circumstances in which they experience veritable acts of racism.

Before you reject WP, ask yourself a question? Do I have at least two relationships with African-Americans that I would label as close friendships?

What I usually hear from whites is a token relationship “from work” or “from the gym” or “back in the military”. My point is that if you don’t have friends of color who you interact with, i.e. pick up the phone and call, text, Facebook, serve with in ministry, have over to your home, go out to eat with, spend recreational time with, etc., then you really can’t speak to the topic. You’ll only hear the real story when you engage in dialog with people who’ve experienced the effects.

FYI, my context is North Carolina.

[dmicah]

On another level, it’s fairly insidious and arrogant when people in the majority refuse to listen to the minority when they explain an intangible sense of oppression, systemic institutional and statistically verifiable bias, and repeated circumstances in which they experience veritable acts of racism.

The real question of course is not “Do the majority see that privilege exists for the majority?” The question is, even if the majority does admit such a thing, what is the minority expecting? I think the real reason people don’t acknowledge any sort of privilege in their upbringing, whether race, economic factors, whatever, isn’t that they can’t see it. It’s that they fear what will come next if they do acknowledge it. Because the answer isn’t “Since things were so unfair for this group, we now need to make it unfair for other groups now (aka, giving preference to the underprivileged group).” We have the record of history for extreme results of that theory during the aftermath of the French revolution. So what else is there that the minority would actually accept as a real solution to the problem?

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.

[dmicah] Do I have at least two relationships with African-Americans that I would label as close friendships?

I only need 2!

My family is multi-ethnic, so that’s more than 2.

I grew up in Jamaica as an MK, and as a TCK considered myself Jamaican, not white. Add all the people I played with, went to school with, interacted on a daily basis with, and the count rises into the hundreds.

No white privilege for me!

The Myth of White Privilege

this isn’t a snarky question, but honestly, what does being Jamaican or growing up there have to do with the American White Privilege? The question still stands since you basically answered in the past tense. Can you or others speak knowledgeably to this topic if you don’t have American friends of color?

(And please don’t confuse my disagreement with your position to be an assumption of racism/discrimination.)