THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVILEGE By Tim Wise

[sasquatch]

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege
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.”


<snip>
Outstanding article.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[JuniperLea]

2. How do you explain all the white people who can't get away with crap like that?

:shrug:

[TomClash]

3. Like most white people

I didn't read the whole thing but this is racist crap.

It's class, not race. Always has been - race is the means to disguise class conflict.

[JuniperLea]

5. I agree...

Classism is the new racism... we are all in this together, and pieces like this only serve to widen the divide. Pathetic. We need to stop this bullshit and work together to fight the oppressors. Being poor isn't a crime!

[FiveGoodMen]

7. I've met plenty of racists

It's really about color to them.

[JuniperLea]

9. People are taught to hate...

Hate isn't a natural thing for humans.

I know plenty of real racists too... but I'll bet they can't give one color related reason for the hate.

[TalkingDog]

27. So my niece who hates the ant that bit her learned that where?

I don't hate ants. Her parents don't hate ants.

Who taught this poor child to hate ants???? Oh, the humanity!! The abysmal tragedy!!!!

I know this is frightening, but you've got to take off the lavender glasses and accept that scary, scary shadow. You can't avoid it, it lives inside you. Accept it, love it. Even though it's ugly.

My hate is very natural. Thanks anyway.

[JuniperLea]

31. You don't get it...

A child has to learn to hate... not every individual event... just the basic idea that hate is ok and is a way to vent. You are making it too hard.

[TomClash]

10. Me too

But class is the ultimate determinant.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. Perhaps that's true for the people that YOU know. It isn't for the people that I'm referring to.

[psychmommy]

12. it's only class if you're not a person of color.

cops don't care if you are rich and black, they will pull you over and drag you out of a rolls royce just as quick as they will a hyundai. so for you it may be class but, for me and my family, we know the deal. driving while black stops only happen in places where black = criminal or immoral or whatever stereotypical adjective one would insert to describe black folks.

[TomClash]

17. And when cops did that to . . .

. . . jews, italians, irish, gays and others, they were doing it because of skin color?

I don't think so.

[psychmommy]

25. if there is no race. people will find something-

for example ethnicity-as the examples you have given. religion-england/ireland, the warring tribes in africa. the difference is that the ethnicities you named were able to blend in and eventually they became part of the majority culture. that will never happen with blacks and darker hispanics. we look too different. muslims who dress traditionally will have a harder time assimilating. gays who are not of color may assimilate, but they don't necessarily want to do it. because they don't, they'll be discriminated against as well.

[TomClash]

26. But why?

Who benefits?

Somebody once said - "if you're not better than a n-----r then who are you better than?"

That's not an expression of racial hatred - it's an expression of class.

Ask yourself, "Who does Richard Parsons socialize with?" It's not the guy who "bummed" some change off me as he was rummaging through garbage cans at 5 a.m. this morning. And it's not the construction workers near my office. And it's not even the mid-level managers at Time Warner. Same color skin, different portfolios.

There's a class war going on and only one side's fightin'.

[psychmommy]

35. oh darling just using that statement is proof in and of itself

there is a class war. but there are other wars going on simultaneously. because the other doesn't affect you it is hard to see. the very wealthy white male landowner is the beneficiary-the system has always benefited them. rich black folks hang with each other. true, but they don't get treated any different really. they go through the same bs the rest of poor black folks get. there are neighborhoods that they are steered toward when buying a home. cabs don't want to pick them up. white women still flinch when they are in an elevator together. cops pull them out of their cars, just like us poor folks.

[Manchurian]

41. You're kidding right?

You cannot be serious!?

That phrase smacks of white privilege. We're just a week removed from a congressman calling the Obama's uppity and you're going to tell me that "if you're not better than a n-----r then who are you better than?" is just a classist statement and not racist?

That statement is both a slur against blacks and against poor whites for not living up to the ideal of whiteness and being better than blacks.

[endthewar]

13. Tim Wise is actually an interesting intellectual on this subject matter

if you listen to some of his speeches and read his essays. He essentially tries to make the point that the concept of whiteness was created as a means of the elites to use class conflict to help them stay rich and in power. So he actually makes the point that both class and race perception are mixed.

[TomClash]

16. Well, I would agree wholeheartedly with that

I don't get that flavor from this piece though.

[sasquatch]

4. Maybe its because they're not fundamentalist

[JuniperLea]

6. I was raised in the same fundy church denomination...

That the Palin's attend. They are a bunch of sickos. But guess what? The church I attended was in Gardena, CA, and was almost 50/50 black and white... with a few Asian and Pacific Islanders thrown in.... and guess what else? We were all on the same financial page...

Classism should not be confused with racism.

[Karenina]

14. Each is used to reinforce the other.

SEPTEMBER 05, 2008

How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said “I do” to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the “Keating 5”? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

— Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth

http://startelegrameditwriters.typepad.com/letters_to_the_startelegr/2008/09/how-racism-work.html

[JuniperLea]

24. This is too sadly true!

This absolutely nails the situation... keeper!

[Skittles]

32. oh don't you know poor white out of wedlock babies are "blessings"?

I agree with you - for the most part it's class, not race

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. It's the only reason this election isn't 90/10 right now.

But I agree with you guys above - classism is just as bad. Combined, it makes for a nice environment doesn't it? :sarcasm:

[Indenturedebtor]

18. Not true. Bush/Gore, Bush/Kerry had nothing to do with racism

and EVERYTHING to do with classism.

[emilyg]

11. Racist nonsense.

[GOPBasher]

15. This is so fucking true. I don't judge people for things like that, but if it were the Obama's

who had this situation, this election would be over. Period. If Obama had a daughter who was pregnant at 17, and the father had a myspace comparable to the one that young man had, McCain would have a 30-point lead in the polls. This is the sad reality.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. That's what I'm sayin'

Okay, maybe they said it better.

Don't forget that white privilege is feeling you are above the law and don't have to respond to subpoenas

[lynnertic]

20. I've seen this posted 3x in the last two days and my response is the same:

The author doesn't seem to understand that these are attempts at using the white privilege and the attempts are FAILING.

White privilege isn't buying much these days because people just aren't letting Palin and McCain slide on the points brought up in the essay.

[Kweli4Real]

21. As an African-American man ....

I can tell you that white priviledge exists.

But reading some of the comments on this thread has led me to the decision to stop having "the race discussion" with white people. As much as I have tried to explain, describe and expose racism in an effort to help white folks "get it", I giving up; because it is way to painful/frustrating for me to watch/listen to white folks acknowledge disparities, then define away my reality.

Don't you understand that when you do that you are exercising the very thing that you claim doesn't exist? :shrug:

[earth mom]

22. I'm sorry but I just don't see any "unity" with these kinds of posts.

Yeah I'm white, but I've had to kick and fight for every damn thing I've ever had in this world. My life has been just one fucking struggle after another.

My family has personally been screwed over by cops to the point that what the cops did to a loved one was just pure evil and devastating to my family. But I'm not going to go into that story here on DU.

So sorry, but I just don't agree with the hammering of this issue because IMHO, unless you are filthy rich in this country you are screwed by the powers that be.

I think-NO, I KNOW-we are in a class war but people would rather say it's only about color when it's really about money and class because it's easier to pin the blame that way.

Hell, even Spike Lee said in his film about Katrina that we're in a class war in this country.

[endthewar]

39. Expand your mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc

[Poll_Blind]

23. Some of the responses to this article should serve as a reminder about how entrenched...

...white privilege really is. One does not have to promote or even be aware of white privilege to be an active part of the propagation of it- just pretend or demand that it doesn't exist. The author juxtaposes example after example, simply showing the inherent difference in how white privilege perceives similar actions of a white person versus those of a non-white.

  And yet a few here are so willing to call this simple juxtaposition "racist", condemn the article and start shit with other posters who merely support the op.

  Expending that much energy to shut a conversation down always leads me to believe those who are carrying out these sorts of shenanigans are a bit more aware of the issue than they let on...

PB

[Karenina]

28. Bingo!

[Kweli4Real]

34. He Gets It!!!!!!!

:toast:

[SteveM]

30. There is a whiff of synthetic absolution about this post...

The "white privilege" argument has been around for a long time and is growing obsolete; there are just too many poor and near-poor people -- most white -- to argue very meaningfully about "white privilege." The economic divide is too great to rest it upon the razor-thin backbone of "rednecks" and all the usual hot button stereotypes thereunto appertaining.

If folks want to talk about race, then listen to a few rednecks, crackers, cedar-choppers, oil field trash, etc. and get an education.

[endthewar]

33. If you listen to Tim Wise's speeches and read his essays

he makes the case that "white privilege" is a means to stoke class warfare between poor people of different races. Tim Wise has a habit of writing things with great substance but then sticking it with a controversial name that elicits an expected knee-jerk reaction against him. He mainly talks about how the concept of "whiteness" was created by the elites to help them keep their wealth, prestige, and class status. Stoke up racial tensions between non-rich white people and people of other races within their income bracket to keep them from turning against the rich people.

[SteveM]

36. I'll watch out for more of his stuff, but the "white privilege" argument is a turn-off...

to "white" people who are in NO POSITION OF POWER, and are no longer under the illusion as to what "privilege" might have been conferred onto them by some Bourbon class. There are just too many plain folks out there who are just making it; fortunately, they probably don't have the time or resources to read remarks about what privileges lurk under the seat of their old F-150s.

They ARE keenly aware of folks who, in a thinly-veiled way, talk down to them.

Deer Hunting With Jesus, by Joe Bageant.

[endthewar]

38. Wise's privilege argument essentially boils down to

if there is discrimination against one group, then that inherently confers an advantage to another group. I agree with your sentiment that perhaps he should use a more euphemistic phrase for this since "white privilege" elicits a very negative reaction and obscures his message.

Here's an interesting youtube video from a speech by Tim Wise. I listened to it a long time ago, but I think he's pretty much making the case that the concept of "whiteness" was invented by the elites to stoke class warfare between races within the same class.

Wise actually argues that "white privilege" is harmful to working class whites. The video is only 10 minutes long but is very insightful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc

[Manchurian]

40. The Psychological Wages of Whiteness

(1st Post! What a unifying issue to start with...)

You guys really need to sample more of his work.

Here's one essay specifically about class

...a system of white privilege encourages the white poor not to form alliances with poor and working class people of color, since such a system encourages those whites to think of their race as all they have, when their economic condition is so miserable. The failure then to form such alliances renders the collective strength of poor and working class people below what it would otherwise be, and thus harms all those who could benefit from such an effort.

Historically, this is how both racism and the class system have been maintained, by playing off whites against people of color, offering the former just enough advantage in relative terms to keep them from aligning with the poor of color and rebelling on the basis of their absolute condition. In the 1700s, this meant ending indentured servitude and placing poor whites on slave patrols among other things, so as to make them, at least partially, members of the same team as the elite. In the mid-1800s, it meant Southern aristocracy convincing poor whites to ally with the cause of secession and the maintenance of slavery, even though the latter drove down the wages of all low-income whites, since they would have to charge for their labor, while black property could be made to work for free.

In other essays he goes in depth on the creation of whiteness and how it was used to elevate one group of the oppressed over the other.

So no, they're not keenly aware of anyone talking down to them. The only explanation for the Reagan/Conservative Revolution is White Privilege. Made possible by their greatest allies... poor/working class whites

[SteveM]

42. I've read and heard these arguments for 50 years...

and I'm sure they were around before then. The point is, how well does this race-based social explanation hold up NOW? I don't think very well.

I must disagree with you on the statement "...they're not keenly aware of anyone talking down to them." Folks who do union organizing or any sort of politicking in the South (certainly there) say that dignity and respect are pre-eminent issues, more than even economic condition. Certainly, there is a sense of fatality among poor whites regarding their economic condition, and many believe (as do most of my well-off friends) that "it doesn't matter who you vote for, they're both the same;" but it's hard to pend an overwhelming racial explanation onto this sense of resignation. (West Virginia was an example of poor whites regularly voting for Democrats -- until the Dems discovered gun-control.) My explanation for Reagan/Conservative Revolution? The Democrats gave up on identifying the Party with any substantial policies designed to better the lot of people, preferring vague sloganeering ("a Third Way," "developing consensus," "it's a win-win!", "moving forward," etc.) to solid policy stands, and even using culture-war issues to drain off a lot of hatred and frustration over continuing losses, most notably joining in with the GOP in the War on Drugs, Inc., and wandering about drunk on the firing range, yelling for gun control.

BTW, up until the 90s, some blacks were able to win legislative races in cracker-oriented Florida Panhandle districts. But they knew the lifestyle and values of the folks there. Things have changed, now.

[Overseas]

37. This essay has gotten lots of mileage. Been emailed all over, too. //nt

[PfcHammer]

43. This is like the looters argument on steroids.

If you're black and looting, it's theft.
If you're white and looting, you found it.