Discussion: White Freakout Part 2

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will ever be, world without end…

2 Likes

I very much agree. I was just wondering what the whole point of the privilege movement is? If I’m a white, heterosexual, able bodied, male, who believes I’m a male and that provides me with a certain range of privilege (in this case I assume they are using the term to mean I have advantages you don’t) then what do they want from me? Stop applying to jobs because I might get it over someone else who isnt any of the above?

More to your point norman, people are deciding I’m more privileged because I’m white. But what they don’t know is I’m an atheist (makes me more hated than even muslims) I’m dyslexic (I guess I’m not able bodied after all). So i guess I would say, why don’t you all check your privilege?

1 Like

“‘Oh you’re black, here you go, here’s a scholarship.’ That’s a privilege,” Gage explained. “Or here’s a racial quota. ‘You’re not qualified but you’re black, so here’s the job’ – otherwise it’s racism.”

Spot on Sir, spot on.

“It’s unfortunate that Fox News drives this kind of discourse and creates this false narrative"

FYI, that’s their sole purpose and governing principle…

2 Likes

Um…Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez would like to have a word with you regarding that very subject. After all, how can a White actor be named Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez? His children are Emilio, Ramon, Carlos, and Renee. You probably know him better as Martin Sheen and his sons as Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen.

Just having a Spanish name does not make one a Native American Hispanic. One can be Hispanic and White.

1 Like

The word “National” is great. Lots of wonderful organizations are “National.” But I don’t see the word “Front” in “National Action Network.” Perhaps you should reread thomasmatthew’s posting.

2 Likes

…and since Blacks and Hispanics are poorer, more likely to go into the military just to get a job, and come out with fightin’ training the average White Joe ain’t got, more reason to fear, ergo-suppress, ergo-to kill for "Running While (not-white) and for such outrages as having a busted tail light… Just sayin’…

2 Likes

True: which is why Geraldo Rivera took the name “Jerry Rivers” in order to “pass” during his student years at U of A…

1 Like

Why can’t we all just get a bong?

1 Like

Isn’t that what the right’s been doing for the last 30 years? Wingnuts continuing to shriek falsehoods won’t deter Clinton one bit.

I agree that these people are ridiculous. I agree that any conceivable harm done to the delicate psyches of these sweet snowflakes pales in comparison to what black Americans face on a daily basis. I agree that it is better to be a white heterosexual male in our society, all other things being equal, than anyone else.

With all that said, I find the concept of privilege to be a singularly unhelpful and rather strikingly divisive concept that is apposite to our goals as progressives to build coalitions to achieve social justice. It is also bizarre to me that the greatest “privilege” in our society, that of wealth, never seems to get mentioned.

2 Likes

True, but just being white doesn’t necessarily make one “Aryan” at least not how many Nazis, Neo-Nazis, and White Supremacists use it, which I think was Hugo’s point.I mean the individuals you mention don’t exactly meet the blond, blue-eyed “ideal” those groups tend to idealize.

To be fair “class privilege” does appear to be mentioned in the lower left hand corner of the board.

1 Like

Perhaps you’ve been reading Walter Benn Michaels?

I had never heard of him, though I guess I am predisposed to his arguments, having studied US labor history and progressive politics. I think he’s basically right. It’s not to say that the politics of race, sex, and so on are irrelevant, but they are really sideshows compared to the massive gaping income inequality we face.

Of course, what’s ironic is that if you look at my facebook wall, I barely ever post anything about income inequality, it’s all gay marriage, racism, and police brutality. It grabs your gut more.

2 Likes

Wellll, i would say that the hippie distinction goes to UNC Asheville over ASU. ASU a close second. Just nit pickin’ :slight_smile:

I too am a highly educated white male who’s six-two and the product of a highly educated household. And bullshit. Acting like having educated parents has nothing to do with race and, for that matter, having had access to sufficient nutrition to reach your full growth potential has nothing to do with race is bullshit.

As is acting like we don’t have an advantage over a black male who’s our height and the educated product of a highly educated household.

You and I can drive down the street with a broken tail light without worrying about being pulled over, arrested and potentially shot.

You and I are more likely to get a job interview than a person with the exact same credentials but an African-American sounding name.

I am from roots that went from dirt poor to underpaid public servant and faculty poor over two generations, and yet I benefitted from two generations of wealth accumulation created by access to housing purchase opportunities and mortgage lending that were unavailable to the parents and grand parents of black people who were either forced to rent from white people or forced to buy housing whose price was artificially inflated through the artificial housing through “rent to own” agreements that represented an inflated interest rate mortgage. Maybe you did too. For most of the twentieth century, housing was a means by which white people could accumulate wealth that could be passed on to their kids–or at least used to defray the ginormous costs that come with aging and thereby help preserve the kids’ wealth–whereas for black people, housing was a means by which black wealth accumulation was thwarted and transferred into white hands.

I could ride a bike through a middle class neighborhood completely free of anxiety that someone will call the cops on me for bike riding while black. Three weeks ago, I locked myself out of my house and had to break in to the garage entrance with a credit card. Took me about five minutes, because while I need a better lock on that door, it at least wasn’t easy. The cop in a police car that drove by while I was doing it didn’t give me a second look. Didn’t even trigger his “something’s wrong with that picture” radar. It was a thing I noticed, because you always feel faintly guilty when you’re breaking in to your own house (or car back when that was still possible).

White privilege is the water in which white people swim.

16 Likes

Neither do the majority of white supremacists…that’s the problem.

1 Like

Also true, but if they were bright enough to notice stuff like that they probably wouldn’t be white supremacists. :wink:

1 Like

What I find so ironic about these folks denying the very existence of white privilege, which CLEARLY exits, is that they tend to be rednecky, trailer park types. For them, they’ve fucked up their lives so bad that white privilege probably does not factor into their lives.

The two most powerful privileges in this country are based on race and class. Being disproportionally impacted by one tends to negate the other. By that I mean really, really rich blacks, like Cosby or OJ, can almost purchase the same equality as whites because their money gives them an elevated status. Similarly, these poor, uneducated, trailer park white trash assholes, are so dumb and poor (usually because of their own actions or decisions), that being white doesn’t bestow any privilege, and MAN are they pissed off about that.

As you’ve pointed out yourself, people don’t have to know that you’re an atheist. That’s a fully concealable belief that isn’t comparable to race, sexual orientation, or other religions that require certain dress or hairstyle that would advertise your belief system. The fact that you make that false equivalency in and of itself falls under what people might call “white privilege”. Have you ever been pulled over for being an atheist? Received a criminal sentence significantly more harsh than a Christian counterpart who had committed the same crime? Have you been denied marriage rights because of it?

1 Like