This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
That is NOT white privilege. That is stupidity. . . and obviously not knowing who you are and what you believe in. White folks aren’t the only people guilty of this.
I completely agree. I actually think he might be reaching a bit on some of his points, trying to bring up white privilege (which seems to be his favorite topic) into the current political debate…Although on the other hand, maybe his point is that the republicans have the audacity to use such ridiculous tactics because they have white privilege and some of the media accepts it because they view it through their white-privileged lense…
So my concern is that if we get rid of white privalage will I get paid less. I don’t mind other people being paid less if I get paid more. And I want to make sure that if I am up against someone else for a job that is different then me in color, gender, theology that I will have that “edge.” I am just a poor white guy in a melting pot! you know what happens when you put something white in a melting pot!?! it gets different, I don’t want to be different unless the difference is how much money I have.
“White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.”
Never have truer words been spoken. When I lived in the south - every white teenage boy I knew had a gun in the house. And nobody EVER questioned it.
I could respond to the article by Tim Wise however I feel that the words have already been excellently expressed in the movie Billy Madison. I will substitute Tim Wise’s name for Billy’s in the appropriate place.
“Mr. Wise, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Come, come now Antigrammatik… the author was clearly going overboard with some of his examples. But let’s not pretend he was completely off-target. White privilege exists; it is a fact of life. Just like male privilege, wealth privilege, etc. The real question is, how do we address the issue.
How does white privilege exist in a world with affirmative action?
How does white privilege exist in a world where there’s black history month but if someone suggested white history month they would be labeled a racist?
I think that these types of things do more harm than good by highlighting that there’s an difference in people that some troglodytes still get hung up on. If people would stop beating the drum of “we’re different and we expect to be treated the same” then people would forget they’re different and would treat everyone the same.
Discrimination exists in this country. It exists for male caucasians from 18 to 40 because everyone else is a protected class. This is the only demographic that can legally be discriminated against.
Well I guess that’s not entirely true Title VII should protect everyone. But for some reason it certainly feels that every other class has some additional protection.
Yeah because why should a country help those whose economic and social base it systemically retarded for all those years? It makes sense that we should all act equal, despite the whites having years and years and years of a head start.
Whites have white history month every damn month and in every damn history book. Black history month is just trying to show the importance of black contribution to this country - something that’s been obviously neglected.
Affirmative action does not say anyone is different. It says certain peoples were screwed and are now as a people, operate from a generally harder base than other people, and that needs to be balanced. No judgment is made on any other difference.
I think that you’re a little off base there on your history book comment. Our history books are largely based on European history because we’re a European colony and most of us are descended from European ancestry. There’s plenty of caucasian history that isn’t accounted for in the typical history book just like they ignore every other continent other than Europe.
Based on your second sentance about affirmative action how can you say your first one? AA says you got screwed because you were different so now we’re going to screw everyone else.
I obviously meant American History books not European/World history.
Let me rephrase my AA comment. I believe that AA aims to make people equal, i.e. get them to the same base. So, yes it does favor minorities if looking at it from a pure black and white (no pun intended) view. But I don’t think it can be evaluated from this point of view. The only criticism I can have for AA is that maybe it needs to factor in (maybe it already does) economic factors to really evaluate who needs help.
Ah, actually, I didn’t realize that you meant that. I don’t remember any history book specifically identifying race. I doubt that there’s some sort of consipiracy to keep other races out of modern US history books. The fact of the matter is that 3/4 of the United States population is Caucasian. Based on that proportion, of course caucasian persons have a higher representation in history books.
So now you’re saying that AA needs to give an advantage to persons based on economic status as well? So as a person who is currently employed, you could never be employed by an AA company?
You’re right - modern books definitely have a more fair coverage… but this is a history of how beforehand, they didn’t http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html.
I’ll address the AA comments in a bit…