Discussion: The Epitome Of White Privilege? Mark Wahlberg's Ill-Timed Pardon Bid

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Discussion for article #230925

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Couple of rhetorical problems in this piece. Before I get started, of course white privilege is real. Of course, doors and opportunities open more often for whites than blacks. But Wahlberg is a really poor choice of strawmen.

First, looking at his past, as pointed out in the article, he was coming from a neighborhood where even as a white man there were not a lot of opportunities available to him. So while he may have had other opportunities later in life because of his race, the time of his life marked by crime was dictated by many of the same pressures that land black men disproportionately in jail. Pointing to a couple of white guys who weren’t killed by the cops as evidence of white privilege doesn’t work either. You mention Holmes and Loughner, and I can raise you the DC Sniper and the Fort Hood shooter. Neither of them were white and neither of them were shot in apprehension. I will also point out that a lot of white shooters are taken out by the cops, Larry McQuilliams being the most recent example of such. If you want to make a point, you should not point to the extremes, because there will always be an equal and opposite extreme right on the other side of the argument. Point to the average.

Second, blaming Wahlberg for putting in his bid now is ridiculous. Anyone who has an opportunity to bid for a pardon is going to do so, regardless of race. And they aren’t going to sit back and say, you know there are riots in a city I have never been to, I guess I won’t ask for a pardon today. The two are completely unrelated, and trying to make them so from the start makes the piece come across as ridiculous.

Third, Wahlberg is a particularly bad example of showing how a criminal record can prevent future job opportunities. Why? Because he is an entertainer, a job profession that almost has a requirement of criminal pasts or at the very least some sort of mental disorder. I point you to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson. His rap sheet is way longer, more violent, and ‘impressive’ than Wahlberg’s, and yet he is worth millions. Is he the beneficiary of white privilege too? No, he is an entertainer, and in certain circles, the checkered past is a benefit, not a hindrance.

If you want to make a point about white privilege, point to an upper middle class white guy with a checkered past but still was able to work their way up to middle or upper management. Point to the frats at any four year institution where the white fraternities can get away with any sort of criminal BS and it is boys will be boys. Yet the black frats are watched for any tiny mistake by a single member. Point to the fact that blacks get longer jail sentences than whites do for the same crime. There are a million ways to point to white privilege, and you, by trying to stay hip with pop culture, decided to miss every single one of them. Honestly, it is almost like you tried to construct a failing argument. You start off with an interesting idea and then tripped over your own feet in the very first sentence and never got back up. I’m sorry, but this was a rhetorical failure from the word go and hurt your own cause.

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The problem with white privilege isn’t the “privilege” part, so let me second the motion that making Wahlberg the straw man here is out of place. Does he deserve a pardon? Has he repented of his misspent youth, become a pillar of the community, and so forth? Okay–then let him have it. AND let his non-famous, non-wealthy, non-white equivalent have it too.

The problem here isn’t that Wahlberg’s pardon request is “ill-timed”–when will there ever be a good time, if he has to wait until we live in a truly post-racial society? The problem is that the request coming from all the other former teenage felons is ill-timed, as in “too early for society’s liking.”

It’s not unreasonable to think we can get, someday, to something much more like a racially egalitarian society. But it’s not going to happen by denying anyone, no matter how privileged, the privileges they actually deserve. It will only happen by extending the franchise of those privileges.

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Thanks for the comment and responses. I would agree that highlighting any individual story as a reflection of such a broad concept like “white privilege” is necessarily reductive, and a significant goal of any such highlighting is to connect to the bigger issues and help us talk about them. In that sense, your last paragraph is exactly the kind of next step I would also argue for, and I appreciate it.

Otherwise, I would simply say this: I think your use of 50 Cent actually makes a different point. Jackson’s crimes were much less violent than Wahlberg’s–mainly, he sold drugs. No assault charges, for example. Yet he did more prison time than Wahlberg, and remains associated with his crimes far more readily and consistently than Wahlberg. (And yes, Jackson was shot 9 times, but in that case he was the victim, not in any sense a criminal.) Whereas I would argue Wahlberg’s far more serious crimes have already largely been forgotten, and now (and it is right now that he’s asking and raising this issue, for whatever reason) he wants them legally forgotten to boot.

Thanks,
Ben

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Ill-timed, SERIOUSLY?

The man has a right to put in his bid and doing so shouldn’t make him seem insensitive.

I’ve seen LOTS of white men every day who have had a difficult time finding meaningful jobs because of their crimes.

Maybe Wahlberg made it because HIS BROTHER was FAMOUS and had connections?

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Thanks for the comments, all. I’ll simply add this: to my mind, my final two paragraphs are the far bigger and more relevant issue here. Our conversations about race, community, identity, and so on seem consistently to elide histories like Wahlberg’s and Dorchester’s and focus on ones like Mike Brown’s and Ferguson’s (to put it reductively, again). So honestly, the issue to me isn’t whether Wahlberg gets his pardon–it’s whether we can, collectively, reframe our memories and histories to be more accurate to these shared issues.

Thanks,
Ben

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This story is a complete waste of time and energy. TPM should leave celebrity fixation to the Huffington Post.

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Wait a minute. Is Wahlberg seeking a pardon or an expunction? I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure they’re completely different animals, legally speaking. Only presidents and governors have the power to pardon, while expunction of criminal records is a much more common process carried out in the courts.
To all you lawyers out there, am I wrong? If not, this is a pretty significant detail for the author not to have fleshed out. Getting a pardon requires real political stroke. Getting an expunction merely requires a sufficient enough bank account to pay a lawyer to go work the levers for you.

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I have a white family member who served time for very non-violent drug possession. He emerged from the system with a record. He is having a hell of a time finding work. Maybe you ought to do some research in to the effect of conviction on all defendants–white, black and brown.

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Ill-timed, indeed.

But how about “never”? He served very minimal time, and had numerous other incidents, including other hate crimes. Let him live with that and take full responsibility. It’s not like he ever reached out to the victims or the families of the victims, now that he is a millionaire and could compensate them.

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More WHITE maLE oPPressION. IF His REcoRD were EXPUnged HE’d BE abLE to FINd a JOB Much EasIER. Who wANTs tO taKE a CHANce On An EXcon? FREE politICal PRISIONer MARKY MarK priSIONer of POlicitaL correctNEss AND CONdeMN the LIBtard OPpRessORs of WHITE maLEs!!!1!11!one!!!1!!!

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Pardon is the term I’ve seen in every story, including Wahlberg’s own request. And it’s to the Board of Pardons that he has applied. So I’m pretty sure that’s the accurate term in this case:

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We need a Massachusetts lawyer to pipe in. Every state has different expungement/pardon processes.

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Why did Wahlberg put in his application now? Because Deval Patrick (African-American, by he way) will be leaving the governor’s office after the end of this month, and his successor, Charlie Baker, is a Republican. Charlie is a lot less likely to grant a pardon.

As to the timing, I don’t know when the application was actually presented–it could be that that happened before the grand juries in Missouri and New York refused to indict. Maybe the press just picked up on a pending application.

The implication of this piece seems to be that because Wahlberg is white and famous, he should not be pardoned. But rather than making someone suffer, wouldn’t we be better if we extended the same benefits to those who have not been privileged?

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Thanks for the comment. Just want to reiterate what I said above–despite what I know is the provocative title and first sentence, my point is not nearly as much about Wahlberg’s individual request or pardon, and much more about our collective responses and memories–to and of such incidents, and even more to and of the histories to which they connect. If we can make those memories–of Wahlberg (whose crimes had been almost entirely elided and forgotten until now), of our communities, of all of us–more accurate and more engaged with history and reality, that’s a lot more significant to me than whether Wahlberg gets his request or not.

Thanks,
Ben

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I certainly don’t think of “white privilege” as the story of a white person who has a violent criminal past and manages to rises above it. White privilege is being given opportunities that others --minorities, women, the poor-- will never receive. Wahlberg’s success seems to come from the same place that allow many people of color to succeed: a huge amount of talent combined with a relentless ambition and a certain amount of luck. (For me, the life of Donald Trump is a better example of an undeserving and talentless person being given extraordinary opportunities over and over again.)

All that said, Wahlberg doesn’t deserve any sort of special pardon for his past crimes. I’m a big believer in the concept “You may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with you” (from the movie, Magnolia). Wahlberg should thank the stars above for his current status and wealth, but he cannot expect the world to simply forget the terrible things he once did.

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What really makes Wahlberg a truly despicable POS is the fact the only reason he is trying to get a pardon is so his family owned and run restaurants can serve liquor, and a convicted felon cannot get a liquor license in California. That’s what makes this whole incident doubly insidious. Personally, I think they should put the sleazy mofo BACK in prison after trying something like this.

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Ben, we were leaving the Kinky Boot’s at the Pantages (We budget to see a few musicals every year) and there were tourists on the sidewalk nearby, young Latino twenty something girls.

One was kneeling at Mark’s sidewalk star and the other was shooting mobile phone video.

We had walked past, but I turned and said loudly enough to make the clip: “You don’t understand, these guys shot my dog”.

Admittedly, there was a chuckle all around but choosing a premise for this piece, simply because the guy seems privileged is pretty damn weak.

The Pantages is on Hollywood Boulevard near Vine BTW so his placement seems appropriate.

He was from a crap hole neighborhood and got turned around by being mentored, found a creative path of expression and now has achieved a bankable status in the industry.

Had you viewed the old interview with Lara Logan on 60 Minutes, perhaps you could grasp his effort for a pardon in context.

He’s now a straight shooter family man who attends mass daily which appears to be an attempt to be some sort of moralist, living a decent life. (I personally feel worship attendance is a stepping stone and NOT the essence of any belief)

So more to the point, so what if he’s asking to have his record expunged, and WTF does it have to do with ethnicity?

Perhaps you should dredge up Lawrence O’Donnell’s past and find a skeleton to embrace there.

Pathetic article Ben, in light of Ferguson especially.

Your pennyweight (type face joke from print media days in case you don’t know) would be better used to find out why the prosecutor and assistant in the Brown debacle, failed to instruct that grand jury properly on the SCOTUS tossing arcane bullshit laws like the one fed to the GJ in support of Wilson’s willful, and ostensibly socially acceptable execution of the kid.

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I was thinking that if Mr. Wahlberg had been a black 16 year old kid he would have died that day. He was high, belligerent, hitting people, mouthing off, etc.

How many young men of color would have gotten off with 45 days in jail and NOT been shot? I think the timing of his request is perfect in connection to what is happening to young, black men (and women) around the country. Should he get his pardon? Not sure, if he were poor - just trying to make a living would a person of any color (white, black, brown) - get the pardon???

The legal system is fucked. Pardon the language - but it truly is and until we not only protest against the injustices for all - it is hard for me to think about pardoning Mark Wahlberg.

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I was waiting for someone to bring this up.

In an article elsewhere the two motivations for the pardon were given as: 1) the desire to expand his burger business in California and 2) the ability to serve in law enforcement in some capacity.

The latter I can’t imagine, except for a Steven Seagal type reality thing. So, rather than his record being a burden on a now reformed “normal” person it seems like it is a burden that keeps him from getting additional leverage out of his success and fame.