The term “white privilege” is thrown around quite a bit here. It’s used as a blanket statement to describe all whites and it’s almost assumed to be natural law, like gravity. Some have stated that not seeing white privilege is proof that the person is privileged.
I’ve attached a Wikipedia article that discusses it, and I agree with the argument against it. The term ignores sub groups of whites, and that privilege is more about economic class than race. Here’s the text of that section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege
“The notion of white privilege raises the question of the difference between rights and privileges. Lewis Gordon rejects the idea of white privilege, arguing that the privileges from which whites as a group are supposed to benefit are, in fact, social goods to which all people aspire. As such, he writes, they are not privileges:
"A privilege is something that not everyone needs, but a right is the opposite. Given this distinction, an insidious dimension of the white-privilege argument emerges. It requires condemning whites for possessing, in the concrete, features of contemporary life that should be available to all, and if this is correct, how can whites be expected to give up such things? Yes, there is the case of the reality of whites being the majority population in all the sites of actual privilege from prestigious universities to golf clubs and boards of directors for most high-powered corporations. But even among whites as a group, how many whites have those opportunities?"[27]
Viewing whites as universally privileged constructs "a reality that has nothing to do with [the] lived experience" of the majority of whites, who themselves do not have access to elite institutions.[27] Their "daily, means-to-means subsistence" is a right, of which it makes no sense to feel guilty.[27] Naomi Zack similarly criticizes the term white privilege as a misunderstanding of the difference between privileges and rights. Discrimination against nonwhites does not create a privilege in the normal sense of the term, a "specifically granted absolute advantage," a "prerogative or exception granted to an individual or special group."[28] In the United States, Zack writes, discussion of "white privilege" distracts from the discussion of social exclusion of nonwhites, which is the origin of racial disparities.[28]”
So if you believe it exists, what should be done about it? Education? From what perspective? Or is it just an attempt at institutionalized guilt? Reparations? How much, and for how long? How would you measure/assess how much is enough? How will you measure if it’s been eliminated?
I’m just putting a few ideas out there, but feel free to add any perspective.
I’ve attached a Wikipedia article that discusses it, and I agree with the argument against it. The term ignores sub groups of whites, and that privilege is more about economic class than race. Here’s the text of that section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege
“The notion of white privilege raises the question of the difference between rights and privileges. Lewis Gordon rejects the idea of white privilege, arguing that the privileges from which whites as a group are supposed to benefit are, in fact, social goods to which all people aspire. As such, he writes, they are not privileges:
"A privilege is something that not everyone needs, but a right is the opposite. Given this distinction, an insidious dimension of the white-privilege argument emerges. It requires condemning whites for possessing, in the concrete, features of contemporary life that should be available to all, and if this is correct, how can whites be expected to give up such things? Yes, there is the case of the reality of whites being the majority population in all the sites of actual privilege from prestigious universities to golf clubs and boards of directors for most high-powered corporations. But even among whites as a group, how many whites have those opportunities?"[27]
Viewing whites as universally privileged constructs "a reality that has nothing to do with [the] lived experience" of the majority of whites, who themselves do not have access to elite institutions.[27] Their "daily, means-to-means subsistence" is a right, of which it makes no sense to feel guilty.[27] Naomi Zack similarly criticizes the term white privilege as a misunderstanding of the difference between privileges and rights. Discrimination against nonwhites does not create a privilege in the normal sense of the term, a "specifically granted absolute advantage," a "prerogative or exception granted to an individual or special group."[28] In the United States, Zack writes, discussion of "white privilege" distracts from the discussion of social exclusion of nonwhites, which is the origin of racial disparities.[28]”
So if you believe it exists, what should be done about it? Education? From what perspective? Or is it just an attempt at institutionalized guilt? Reparations? How much, and for how long? How would you measure/assess how much is enough? How will you measure if it’s been eliminated?
I’m just putting a few ideas out there, but feel free to add any perspective.
