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White Privilege

Is it real? Please answer honestly.

  • 26 votes
  • 5 votes
St-Sinner 9 Apr 17
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21 comments

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10

A friend once told me that we don't know what privilege we have till we lose it or step away from it. But how do we do so? He said beautiful people don't understand that power they have till they stop being beautiful if someone treated them fair they think the person is being rude because it's something they're not used to... A man can't understand what a woman go through and what challenges she faces because of her gender. A white man doesn't know what a black man or woman go through on a daily basis because they haven't been there...
To truly understand the privilege we have we have to walk in the shoes of the other person..

Neenz Level 7 Apr 17, 2019

Thank you for mentioning that the beautiful and great-looking also have a form of privilege and power in the world, esp. in the dating game, even tho they and many other people who aren't great-looking seem unaware of this or refuse to acknowledge it. But I have seen it countless times in person and it's there. You're also right on the overall point, most are never aware of their privilege until they lose it. Stepping away from it and walking in the other person's shoes is something few will be willing to do voluntarily. Most people are too selfish and won't leave their comfort zone.

You stated this perfect!

8

Of course white privilege is real. As a white person, I don't worry about:

  1. Being harassed, beat up or called racist names due to the color of my skin.

  2. While driving, get stopped by police for no reason, and fear being shot and killed.

  3. Discriminated against in housing, employment, college admissions, etc.

  4. Told to leave stores. Not waited upon. Given dirty looks.

  5. Being arrested for no reason.

  6. Getting shot in the back by police.

  7. Shunned at school due to the color of my skin.

[yesmagazine.org]

Thank you.

I don't get harassed when with other white people, I do when with People of Color.

Well defined Kathleen....

6

There was no option for "fuck yes". So invalid poll.

1of5 Level 8 Apr 17, 2019
6

What am I agreeing or disagreeing to? That this happens? That it's okay? I can't decipher the point of this post. White privilege is indisputably a real thing, although I can't say I'm happy about that. Since I can't make it go away, I try to use it for good and not evil.

Deb57 Level 8 Apr 17, 2019

White privilege is so awesome I want everyone to have it.

4

Of course this specific scenario is untrue (unless the driver is the police chief's kid, in which case all bets are off). But white privilege does exist. For example, African-Americans get turned down as Airbnb renters more frequently than whites do. African-Americans get police called to investigate them even when they are not doing anything remotely criminal or even suspicious. So yeah, white privilege exists.

4

I don't think the meme is accurate. But I do believe there is a problem with "privilege" though it isn't always as cut and dried as we make it out. I think privilege can be different in different areas.

I never really thought about privilege until I saw a video where a large group of college students did a "privilege race." I can't find it again and there are a lot of similar videos now but they aren't as profound. This group of many different nationalities was brought to a starting line and told they would race but before the race started they were going to be asked some questions. If the answer to any of the questions was yes, they were allowed to take a step forward. They were asked things like never having to miss a meal, having a two parent family, getting scholarships, and things like that. After several questions it was painfully obvious that the white kids were the ones getting the biggest head start and the colored kids were mostly being left behind.

When you're the one experiencing the privilege, you don't really notice. You're comfortable and not motivated to question the status quo. The entitlement that comes along with privilege blinds people into not noticing that they are taking advantage of others. It's a very painful truth to face and most people simply refuse to do it.

Very good

I think white privilege exists but I think a greater privilege which yes does largely consist of white people is inherited wealth. I live in rural Montana and their is a very real separation between poor whites and the wealthy ones. Trumps election is a sad example of the poor white population shooting themselves in the head...again. I wish they would wake the fuck up and understand that the poor minorities in this country could be their greatest allies in the fight for equality in this country. They are not the enemy. But the Republicans play nice with them and dupe them into believing their lies and many Liberals talk down to them and treat them like their idiots.

@Quarm I would definitely say that money is one of the things that leads to privilege. It's probably the only thing that definitively dictates privilege across all lines. I think depending on culture in some places you might see black privilege, woman privilege, homosexual privilege, and so forth but wealth by its nature pretty much guarantees privilege.

@Meili That is why we need humanism. Why we need the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Why we have to stop holding so dearly to identity based on the idea that others are not part of that identity so are suspect with zero real cause.

4

One thing I know for certain: I would not still have thousands in student loan debt if I were black. I came from a poor family and my only way to college was either by scholarship or enlisting in the military. Instead, I waited until I was in my mid 20's to enroll so my parent's income would not be used to calculate my EFC (even though they were poor, the government considered them rich enough to pay for most of my education). So I went on a scholarship search and there was nothing, zero, bupkis, nil, zilch, nada, nothing at all for white males. And I did extensive searches every year for several years - nothing for white males. But there were so many minority scholarships that, had I been black, I would have gotten a free ride as long as I maintained a C average.

Fast forward a few years to when I served on the Leadership Cabinet of my State's CPA Society. We spent enormous time and effort trying to attract minorities into the profession, going as far as to recruit high school freshman. We offered free tutoring, full ride scholarships (including books, room, and board) to any public university in the state with an accounting program (just maintain a C or better GPA), plus GUARANTEED employment at one of several firms or companies with starting salaries (pre-2005) averaging around $50,000 a year. After several years, we could find only two who expressed any interest at all. So we ended up expanding our search for minorities by going to the suburban high schools and offering the complete free ride to any minority who wanted it. We ended up having to limit the number of program enrollees due to massive response - even though most of the kids came from well-to-do families who could afford to send them to college on their own.

What I learned from 7 years of doing this is that it mostly boils down to the individual's values. You can hand someone a free ride to a good life (partners at CPA firms typically earn over $200k/year), but if the person thinks it's "selling out", well, there really isn't much that can be done about it. All I know is that when I was in high school, I would have traded one of my siblings to get an offer like we were handing out 15 years ago.

Finally, I have had quite a few conversations with minorities who are "successful" in terms of socioeconomic status, and to a person, none of them shared ever having felt held back, harassed, discriminated against, or looked down on. The just plain don't see it. But several of them pointed out that a lot of it has to do with the way a person presents himself/herself.

In short, if there is white privilege, I would love to start finally taking advantage of it, because I have been shit on, stepped on, spit on, fucked with, and pointed at my entire life. Nothing has come easy. Nothing. And I learned from experience that no one cares if you're poor AND white (especially if you're male). So no, at least in my experience, I don't see white privilege as a thing. I do, however, see privilege for those with money - white or black. That is a thing for sure.

You have to download it, but this is a good article about white privilege
[medschool.duke.edu]

@Remi Believe me, I know what academia thinks white privilege is. I'm just not buying it. I know better.

@Piratefish this wasn't written by academia, it was written by a white person who grew up poor. Give it a try.

@Remi Not written by typical ultra-liberal academics? Nah, it just has a .edu at the end of the URL. 😀

@Piratefish wow, you won't even look? It wasn't put out by Duke. They picked it up somewhere. Don't be dismissive.

4

Yes. Seen it in Miami many times over. White privilege exists.

3

A link from the NAACP regarding racial disparity in re to minor drug charges. [naacp.org]

MizJ Level 8 Apr 17, 2019
3

of course it is real. (and if we were not inclined to be honest, why would saying "please be honest" change that?)

g

3

Where I come from, there are real caste privileges. I was born into the top caste and top sub caste. I know very well what it is like to be born with privileges. I was invited even as a kid to festivals, functions, ceremonies, homes to eat with them, even to spend time with them because of the belief that our caste was pious, closer to God. I know very well. But I am on the other side here. Lol.

3

Straight, white, christian, males are definitely the privileged class.

IF they have money. I grew up poor and white and learned the hard way that no one gives a shit about you if you're poor AND white (and especially male). Lots of programs and benefits for poor minorities, but not so much for poor whites (and I am not talking about welfare, either - do a scholarship search sometime, you'll see what I am talking about).

2

You’d have to have your head deep up your ass to not see white privilege in America. There are
Certainly enough studies out there that illustrate it, plain as day, for all those “but, i -personally- haven’t witnessed it, or experienced it, or heard of it, and evvvvverybody I have ever known has told me explicitly that they’ve never experienced or witnessed any white privilege, too”. 🙄

2

Only if in a newer car, dressed in clean shirt proper pants or shorts!

Not wearing a dirty T-shirt with basketball cap, cut offs with dirty face and meth teeth!

White privileged has rules to live buy!

I have quite a few friends who dress well and carry themselves well, and none have ever had any issues. I know, because I have asked them. However, I have some friends who dress and act in a way that draws unfavorable attention from time to time.

@Piratefish
I drive an older BMW 540ia, I have never been stopped even when speeding well above the limit here in Texas! Just not 420 friendly here, hence I do not break any laws in that respect!

@of-the-mountain I just got written up for 6 over not three weeks ago - I kid you not. And this was on a rural highway while I was driving a nearly new $49,000 car. Being white didn't help me at all that day. My guess is the cop had gotten blue-balled that week and was still pissed about it. 😀

BTW - the ticket was about $110, but I can enter a deferral program for $195 that will keep the points off my license, and the state from reporting the citation to my insurance company. I'm going to do it - figure my premiums will go up by at least that much when I renew this fall if I have a recent ticket on my record.

Shit! Shoulda used my white privilege card - I'd be home free! 😀

2

I agree that white privilege is a thing. Or rather it’s a term for the positive space left in our lives from having one fewer major thing to worry about (ethnic discrimination) that others have no choice but to deal with on top of life’s normal struggles. Sensitive broflakes like to protest and say they aren’t privileged because they have a victim mentality and think that, after centuries of walking all over everyone else, the prospect of equality would feel like tyranny. They feel like suffering is a competition and if they aren’t the most put upon demographic then someone brown might horn in on their pity party and make it about social justice and that would just be a bitch of an unsatisfactory situation, I tell you whut.

I disagree with the meme however; we do get away with more shit from cops than black people on average, it’s just that no one regardless of skin color feels like doing 20mph over the speed limit if they’ve smoked herb. You get real patient in traffic if you smoke herb.

1

I would say yes it is real. not my intention to capitalize on it but I am sure its been beneficial tome. I try to treat people equally but seems not all do

1

Yes, it's a thing. I had it in America if I kept my mouth shut but the moment that Irish accent came out, I dropped in status.

1

Definitely yes.

0

I've been white my whole life and I'm still waiting to see all this privilege I'm supposed to have.

You don.t have to worry about getting shot for having a taillight out and reach for your wallet ???

That's why it's called privilege.

Having it definitely interferes with being able to see it. I had it pointed out to me at a very young age, and I haven't been able to stop seeing some of it ever since. And yet I'm aware that I still don't notice a lot of what I can take for granted.

@Deb57 I believe I see what everyone means. Interesting I never saw it that way. I just assumed not being sjhot or harrassed for no reason was normal rather than a privelege.

@Sgt_Spanky People get hung up on the word privilege because it conjures up visions of wealth but what it actually means is that white people have something people of color do not; which -within the criminal justice system is the default status of being innocent whereas poc default status is guilty until they prove themselves innocent

0

It should say "Rich white privilege".
If your driving a BMW it would work.
If you're driving a beat up ford, you're not getting any slack.

If you are a white guy driving a beat up Ford, you still have more privilege than a person of color driving a beat up Ford, or than any woman driving a beat up Ford.

@Deb57 trie, but not as much as a white guy driving an Audi, and a 6 figure job.

0

Looks like a strange Norman Rockwell.

cava Level 7 Apr 17, 2019
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