Take 2: Treating incidents of racism against whites as the same as institutional racism

[Political Heretic]

I tried to make this point in a separate thread, to which a bunch of people ignored the point entirely and argued against strawmen.

One of the ways, historically, that certain bigots have attempted to thwart forward progress in institutional racial equality is by equating individual instances of racism against a white person with the systemic, historical institutional oppression experienced by persons of color at the hands of a dominate power group.

This is not to deny that racism against any ethnicity exists. Any individual is capable of irrational feelings toward any other person for any reason, including any color or that persons skin among other thing. But white persons in our society do not experience social oppression for being white. Just like straight persons don't experience social oppression for being straight in our political and social institutions.

Thus the danger is to accept attempts to sort of "level the playing field" and act like persons of color do not experience specific hardships and specific institutional barriers because of their race, simply because some white person somewhere experienced the bigotry of some other person. Institutional racism is different than individual instances of bigotry.

To reiterate the point: Be wary of anyone trying to conflate institutional oppression experienced by persons of color with instances of racial prejudice experienced by some white person. They are both wrong, but they are not the same. And just like Homophobia is more destructive and pervasive than "heterophobia" the same is true of the systemic discrimination and institutional racism experienced by persons of color.

Some reminders about the reality of white privilege (and I live in Idaho and am white as the driven snow by the way):

Daily effects of white privilege

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html

[anonymous171]

1. K&R. nt

[Starry Messenger]

2. This can never be posted too often.

K & R.

[Loudmxr]

3. The goal is to treat everyone with the respect and dignity that each human being deserves.

It will take time because with new people coming in from all over the world they bring with them their own bigotry and we teach them our tried and true American prejudices.

But I have confidence in our youth. They are the least gender, race, ethnically, relationship orientated prejudiced generation ever!! :patriot:

[BlooInBloo]

4. I love it when white folks try to glide over the entire issue with lines like...

"I just want EVERYBODY to treat EVERYBODY with respect."

:rofl:

[Catherine Vincent]

5. K&R!

And no one wants "white privilege" to go away. But just agree that it exist because there are many that are in denial.

[tbyg52]

6. Damn good questions. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Wow, that's a lot of stuff. n/t

[Number23]

8. Could you post a link to your original thread?

I'd like to know the genesis of this discussion. Thanks

[Political Heretic]

9. Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8075334&mesg_id=8075334

[blonndee]

10. K&R

[silverojo]

11. Women of ANY color face most of the same problems

We face the same issues of earning less money (than men), having to worry about being assaulted, being discriminated against, etc.

I get so tired of issues being created out of thin air, when we have so many real issues facing us in this day and age.

Racism exists. Sexism exists. All sorts of shit exists. The time to deal with that is after we've stopped our country from going down the toilet, thanks to G.W. Bush.

[Political Heretic]

15. This isn't a competition.

injustice experienced by women is different but equally important from racial injustice. Similarly, injustice experienced by gays is different from but equally important as the other two.

We must not get into a mindset of adopting a one size fits all mentality when it comes to oppression, or we risk depersonalizing and diminishing the real and unique experiences of each or worse - getting into a disempowering and misguided argument over who is "more" oppressed.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Thank you for taking the time to post this. Rec. n/t

[Cid_B]

13. Get over this crap...

How bout people stop using their skin pigmentation or a chromosome to identify who they are. 95% of the stuff on this crappy pity party list can be dealt with by not being an idiot.

I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

Honestly....

[Political Heretic]

14. There's a mixure of large and small things in this woman's reflections

She was reflecting on day to day ways her life as a white woman gave her large or small advantages. For the three small individually inconsequential things you mentioned, there are many times more deeply significant differences described.

People of color didn't start the process of oppressing or differentiating people by skin pigment in our society. But after mass, pervasive tragedy and horror at the hands of those who did it is more than understandable that color-identity as a counter-balancing strength is sought. People of color didn't make color the issue, but since it was made an issue, the last word shouldn't be hatred, discrimination, separation and segregation.

And since discrimination is not gone from our political or social institutions nor from our culture, it will continue to be an consciousness raising issue whether you like it or not.

Here's the rest of what you should read, as it applies to the attitude you just demonstrated:

Peggy McIntosh

Through work to bring materials from women's studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to women's statues, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can't or won't support the idea of lessening men's. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.

Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there are most likely a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of while privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.

Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women's studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, "having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?"

After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are just seen as oppressive, even when we don't see ourselves that way. I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow "them" to be more like "us."