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

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?

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.

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.

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 just love smart people. Whoever the hell they are.
Thank you, and I hope you don’t mind if I continue to listen in.