A white internet surfer was lamenting the fact that white people are being treated like second class citizens. This person felt this way despite the fact that white people control the vast majority of wealth in the United States. He or she felt this way despite the fact that white people obtain the majority of educational opportunities at the majority of institutions for higher learning. This person felt this way even though white people occupy the vast majority of upper, middle, and lower echelons of government positions. And the number of white people who are in executive, middle, and lower management positions in corporate America overwhelms any other racial minority.
This person felt this way despite the vast majority of white actors and actresses in movies and television programs that dwarf their black counterparts. For every black actress there must be a hundred white ones. For every Halley Berry, who claims not to be fully black because her mother was white, there are dozens of Kate Hudsons, Angelina Jolies, Kate Blanchettes, Gwen Stefanis, Reese Witherspoons, and Hillary Swanks. For every Will Smith there are dozens of Joaquin Phoenixes, Jack Blacks, Russell Crowes, Viggo Mortensens, Dennis Quaids, Ben Afflecks, Matt Damons, and Jake Gyllenhaals. But white people who want to go into acting can’t catch a break these days because of all the movies and television programs that don’t feature white people.
Across America there are thousands and thousands of companies with office staffs that are predominantly white. Many of these companies don’t even have a black employee in the office. And many of these companies don’t even have a black person on the payroll. Let one of these companies take proactive steps to racially diversify their workforce and the next white person who doesn’t get a job will be suing with claims of reverse discrimination. White people who apply for jobs at predominantly white companies can’t find a job these days.
From the perspective of a lot of people, white people are treated like second class citizens for having to share social resources with nonwhites. The moment some white people realize that they don’t have an exclusive choke hold on opportunities, these people begin to feel that white existence is under attack. Some people have yet to learn that white privilege is not a god given right but an artificial construct of a culture so dominating that it thinks nothing of locking nonwhites in chains for the crime of being not white.
One of the most evil institutions that ran contrary to the great establishment of white privilege was affirmative action. Wikipedia describes affirmative action as a set of policies and/or programs intended to promote access to education and/or employment opportunities aimed at historically socially or politically oppressed groups, typically minority men and/or women of all races. The motivation for affirmative action policies is to help rectify the effects of wrongful discrimination in the past and to encourage public institutions to be more representative of a racially diverse population.
But the protectors of white privilege countered affirmative action with claims of reverse discrimination. Suddenly, institutions that tried to correct their history of focusing on providing opportunities exclusively to the white community are being too unfair to white people. Companies with beaucoup white people on the payroll are suddenly unfair to white people and are being successfully sued for not hiring even more white people. But white people never sue an institution because an inferior white person is hired. However, it is a near given when black people are involved.
It’s not fair to do anything to correct the hundreds of years white privilege has enjoyed at the expense of the other races. It’s much better to keep the status quo and let white privilege continue rather than give affirmative action any legitimacy. In fact, everyday more and more black people are convinced that affirmative action is more hurtful to the black community than helpful. The fact that many black people calling for its demise actually benefited from these affirmative action programs is just an awful coincidence best overlooked. People who are benefiting from white privilege will support anyone who will promote the end of affirmative action and other concepts that can threaten white privilege. Black people who call for an end to affirmative action are one of this world’s greatest ironies.
White privilege is in no danger of disappearing. It is strong and it is flourishing to greater limits each and every day. No matter what measure a person applies to success white people are overwhelmingly represented.
It must be admitted that white privilege is much more satisfying and/or more gratifying for white people when other races do without. Black people getting jobs mean fewer jobs for white people. It doesn’t matter if white people who make up seventy percent of the population and are already getting ninety five percent of the jobs and the educational opportunities. White privilege needs it all. White privilege needs every last opportunity in order to make sure other people better understand their place in the social, economic, political ladder. White privilege does not thrive when it has to indulge the black community or the Latino community or any other non white community. In order to be secure in itself white privilege needs to make sure it has it all. Anything less is an attack on white privilege.
I hope you don’t mind that a white person makes a comment here. I just wanted to say this…
I found your commentary absolutely right on the money. It is completely logical, intellectual, and without undue rancour. This is exactly what people of any race need to hear, but especially those who believe in this concept of ‘white privilege’, because without the finger of blame pointed with a corrosive anger, it is a message that WILL be heard, absorbed, and thus understood.
I find this supremely important, as forced guilt does a terrible mischief to one’s conscience; especially if said conscience is already burdoned. Leading a horse to water, and all that…
I just love smart people. Whoever the hell they are.
Thank you, and I hope you don’t mind if I continue to listen in.
I completely agree. For further analysis I would recommend George Lipsitz’s book entitled “The Possessive Investment of Whiteness.”
Another way of looking at it is that racism/white supremacy is a deficiency disease; the white body (politic) requires constant infusions of land, money, position, control in order to stave off the reality of what they’d be without these accoutrements. A white person without “everything” is “nothing.” At least, that’s what their behavior suggests.
If one really pays attention you can see how sad, insecure and self hating white people are behind the hubris and callous behavior. They don’t appear to truly believe in their superiority; its a mask, poorly worn, and their global incursions against people of color indicate how glaring the gap is between fiction and reality.
I’m halfway through Slavery By Another Name… and having this new information about Black history is really kicking my ass. White Guilt? Nope. Just sheer, unadulterated rage… and given the events of today, astonishment and joy.
This post is excellent. It is completely right on the money. The same is sadly true for higher education. Every Tom, Dick and Harry who does not get a seat at the university they dreamed of blames it on affirmative action. Little do they realize, they are not really competing with recipients of affirmative action but their fellow Whites who happen to have better connected fathers and more money.
White privilege is so insidious because many Whites don’t realize they have it and when it is pointed out, they become offended. Peggy MacIntosh did a great job enumerating the privileges but failed when it came to creating a substantive discussion of how one goes about relinquishing them. In a hyper competitive society, how does one ask another to relinquish privilege? That’s a hard pill to swallow.
And the discussion of Blacks who wish to dismantle affirmative action is always depressing. If the argument were because it only furthered White privilege through its overwhelming benefit to white women, that would be fairly tolerable but thats not it.
Kalagenesis:The only true reason affirmative action was created to to give blacks a false sense of hope and whites a false sense of superiority.Whites live in every corner of America while we blacks only occupy about 10 states in any large number.So if Vermont who has the fewest Blacks,how will they be obligated to diversify?They cant it is all a farce.The problem is certain whites have a lock on all the best this country has to offer.The”ugly white man”is the one who never benefits from his skin color the way he thinks he should.It is this underachiever who blames minorities for his shortcomings,and I believe affirmative action only aids and abets this belief system.
I’m for also making sure that the new morphing of Affirmative Action (AA) establishishes and maintains some quality of individual understanding and support. All too often we want to make sure we have representation without honestly looking at ALL of the qualities that come with the hire! I’m not looking to see AA dismantled, but I do think standards need to be incorporated. We also need to be honest about abilities based on the educational diffencies. You just can’t drop out of grade school and without mental reconnection to the learning process, expect the most for your efforts alone. You just can’t claim, “I’m tryin’ as hard as I can.” And let’s be clear about the other side of that coin too. It’s not good to sport book sense alone as a banner of vetted support status.
Re: whites lamenting “white privelege”: I get your point. But many of the people who black people think of as “white” aren’t really considered of a same ethnicity by most whites. I mean, are Jews white? They claim to be of another race. The Nation of Islam has plenty to say about their relationship to other ethnicities. I always laugh, as a white person, since I would never EVER apply for many of the jobs thought of as carrying “white prestige.” I’m from Appalachia. To whatever degree I’ve been shut out, I seriously count myself lucky. The white world of Northeastern colleges, tv and Hollywood propaganda machines, are mostly Jews (and Jew-story-oriented) materials. It has absolutely nothing to do with my (white) culture. I just wish you guys would rename the country. I don’t think of it as white, or any of the jobs in it as white, or any of the offerings that many black people say they want to be “white.” Please call the country something else, besides America. Again, most whites I know don’t even bother to try to excel or fit in, or often even work, except at menial jobs. Otherwise, we read and write, study on our own, things like this. I feel totally alienated by Jewish culture, (eg all of Hollywood, tv, newsprint), absolutely none of which is owned by any whites (except Murdoch), who still is of a different ethnicity. Blacks seem to see things in such a sweeping way—-all black, then everything not black (in color) is white. Whites don’t see this at all…which is why you write things like this. I mean: Whites do not see this as a white culture. It’s a hard thing to grasp if your mind is trained the other way. White is a million shades of white to us. To me, nothing in America is white. Not that I really care. I’ve never voted or anything, and don’t know any whites who have. Again, a hard concept, but we see nothing white to even be involved with. And again, I don’t care. I mean, I’m happy just spending my life quietly, not participating in the larger culture. I accepted it just wasn’t anything to do with whites (unless whites are Jews, who have a very different culture), or Hispanics, etc. (again, just different races and religions and so on). I still have a great time. But I do not feel any loyalty to “America” as a “white.” Just FYI. I read stuff like this sometimes and it’s just funny—since the headset ascribed to “whites” is so different from any whites I have ever met, really. None think they really have any investment in, or anything to do with, this country, really.
This is outrageous!!! I am soooo sick about hearing how white people are over privileged. I understand that African Americans have come a long way but they are the ones who get special privileges like affirmative action. And why is that we can have black heritage history month and not European heritage history month. If we had European history month it would be the most racist thing. Why is it that black people are told to be proud of their race and white people aren’t. AND DONT TELL ME THAT WE NEED PROGRAMS LIKE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR BLACK PEOPLE! Its always black people who talk about equality for their race….I completely agree with them except that affirmative action is not equal opportunity like they say it is. It simply penalizes Asians and Whites. Asian people are minorities too but they don’t need affirmative action. If black people really deserve to get into a college then by all means that is fair, but a lot of the time with aff. action they get into college for the color of their skin. Oh, and why do we never hear about the white people in South Africa getting killed by blacks simply because of the color of their skin. Its funny, racism is now against white people in this country, but very view people think this is true. I AM NOT RACIST AND I AM BEING COMPLETELY FAIR! Also why don’t we ever learn about IRISH slavery in school? I am offended by this article!
@Jeff: Your inclusing of ‘White South Africa’ in the argument proves you really do not know what you are talking about.
Firstly, the predominately white Afrikaner movement created apartheid to destroy the emotional strength and social rights of black African people. So, you need to make sure you add that in any argument before you start spewing accusations of black people killing ‘white people’ in South Africa without even a LINK of proof.
What a brilliant post!!!!
If I may, let me add one crucial component of White privilege: the belief that every accomplishment or achievement of a White person is 120% deserved. The key point is White privilege must be ignored and denied that in order for it to be preserved and perpetuated. White privilege will have you believe that no White person has ever benefited from being White, even in this country in which so many have suffered because they were not White.
So we shouldn’t expect the beneficiaries of a system that favors them to admit that it even exists, let alone to work towards its dismantlement. Thankfully, there are plenty of White people out there who’re getting with the program and collaborating in the dismantlement of White privilege. And for our part, we’ve got to keep keeping on, calling a spade a spade, and calling out White privilege wherever it rears its ugly head.
The rest, like Jeff above are a lost cause. He sees a corrective measure—including the history of Black people to mainstream American history—as preferential treatment of Black people. If he can’t understand that Black History Month exists precisely because the history of the US as it has been taught for generations is a history of White people, then there’s no reaching him. Any acknowledgment of the existence and contributions of Black people to American history and culture is seen by him as unfair towards White people.
What more is there to say?
Anna & Jeff,
What neither of you realize is that the fact that you can ignore whatever “white culture” is, the fact that you can grow up without thinking about race or ethnicity, etc., is an example of your own privilege. Do you think that Black Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, have that privilege? If I don’t want to hang out with Black people, I can just live in my suburb, I don’t even have to think twice about avoiding discomfort in my life elicited by race. Can a black man do that?; can he just avoid white culture? – no, not if he is to be successful in our world, our America.
And that’s the problem! It’s a systemic privilege issue, where the system is framed for white acceleration, and minority cultures don’t just fit in with the framework like White folks just “expect” them to. This is just a tiny example in this complex issue, but I urge you, honestly, to think about what it really means to be a person of color in America. Admitting that you’re privileged doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person or that you don’t or your ancestors didn’t work hard. But no matter how hard your ancestors worked, there are aspects of privilege in your genealogy that got them ahead of people of color in America.
And by the way, there are MANY types of privilege. There’s religious privilege, white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege….. we all have multiple identities that can be within dominant and minority groups. White people need to monitor their own anxiety about race, let go of their defenses, and at least just be willing to listen.
Kayla