The Lie That is White Privilege

[George Orwell]

white privilege is real, but it shouldnt have enough effect on the black community as a whole to the point where it is preventing black people from achieving their full potential.

The problem I see with American blacks is that they conflate political power with economic success. That is the reason why so many blacks voted for Obama, believing if they elected "one of their own" it would somehow advance them economically.

Having economic success for your community as a whole is a helluva lot more important than seeing people who look like you in positions of power or in movie roles.

Asians on the other hand are basically invisible politically, yet prosper economically, on average.

[K-DOGG]

I apologize for the excessive length of this post; but this is a hugely important topic to me and I don't want to understate it's significance.

There is a huge misunderstanding to the term "white privilege".

Simply put (as simply as I can put it), it is the "privilege" of being born white.

Now, what does this mean? Are their poor white people? Absolutely. "White Privilege" has nothing to do with how much money you have or what part of town you grew up in, or what kind of education you received. It's a mind-set, a point of view, a perspective based on the color of your skin and the surroundings and conditions of your environment based on that birthright, so to speak.

No white person can ever "know" what it's like to be anything "but white"...FACT. This is who you are and the experience you have had in life; and every perception in how you view the world is grounded in that reality, regardless of how non-prejudicial you think you are or try to be. Regardless of how open-minded you are, the color of your skin colors the world around you, based on the way everything is set up before you came into this world.

"Racism" is a system, "Prejudice" is a perspective, an attitude, a bias, a bigotry; it is personal. When you hear people talk about "reverse-racism", they are speaking ignorantly. What they are referring to is "prejudice" based on "racism".

"White Privilege" is real simply because the movers and the shakers, the people who control the world and the economics of it are "White". They don't care about poor white people any more than they care about poor black people, poor brown people, etc; but to keep their "classism" alive, they have to keep their potential opposition in "its place" and keep the money flowing into their pockets. Poor white people just happen to luck out in a few ways because they happened to be born with the same skin-tone as those running the show. They don't feel like it; but how would they know? Once again, you cannot "know" what it is like to be anything but the race you are. If you think race doesn't matter, you're fooling yourself.

If you need evidence of this system, all you have to do is a comparative analysis of the prison population and jail sentences for similar crimes by people of different races. Statistically speaking, white people serve less time than blacks do for committing the same crime. Statistically speaking, there are still more white people in the United States than there are black people, yet there are more black people in prison to whites proportionally. Why?

Why is it Black people and other non-whites are regularly profiled by police? Are they more dangerous? More likely to be "criminals"?

Someone brought up housing. While there is truth in the statement that you make your own fortune, it is undeniable that a non-white has to work harder to get ahead and get out of an unfortunate situation than a white does, which is, of course, where Affirmative Action comes into play....supposedly. However, in many ways, "Affirmative Action" is racist because while it proposes to help the non-white get ahead in the world, it also sets the bar lower for them, thus controlling how hard someone pushes themselves in an attempt to allegedly "right a wrong".

Lets look at the Well-fare system. While, no, not all well-fare recipients are non-white, statistically, there are more impoverished non-whites than whites. The well-fare system is designed to keep people down because it discourages escaping it. It is altruistic, ideally; but in reality, it is a hindrance in it's current form. I am not saying not to help our underprivileged. What I am saying is the system, while in the best of circumstances, does aid people who need it, it also makes it very hard to escape it's clutches, thus, making you dependent on the state. While there are whites on well-fare as well, as I stated earlier, those running the show don't care anymore about poor whites than poor blacks. They care about power and if you have someone content to "stay dependent", they won't rise up and earn power for themselves. This is a form of control.

I've known people who had to get on well-fare to support their family; and the moment they found a job, which didn't quite pay enough to support that family (an all too common occurrence these days), their well-fare benefits were cut significantly, making it even harder to get by. It would have been easier for them to have stayed on well-fare.

Control.

Here's an interesting piece of information. Look up Black-owned businesses before the Civil Rights amendment. Ironically, while segregation was the norm, Black-owned businesses, percentage-wise, were doing better statistically than after segregation ended. So much so, that many of them were targeted by jealous racist whites of the era. A prime example of this can be found in the history of Greenwood Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the "Black Wall Street" was booming in the midst of a predominantly white community. Whites in the area, so angered by the success and financial stability of area Blacks, they rioted in 1921 and burned most of it to the ground. This is the basis of the Gap Band's hit from years ago, "You Dropped the Bomb on Me.....not some really hot chick.

Don't believe me, look up Greenwood, in 1921. Most Americans are unaware of it.

The end of segregation, ironically, also marked the beginning of a downwards spiral of Black-owned businesses.

Am I suggesting going back to segregation? No. Absolutely not.

I am trying to point out, "why" this happened. Segregation forced Blacks to help themselves, because White businesses did not cater to them. After segregation ended, Blacks now were considered (theoretically) equal; but all it did was bring more "black money" to white establishments, thus enhancing the white-owned establishments and putting the black-owned establishments at a disadvantage because many of their former patrons sought what?

To be "equal" to the White man because of a psychological pre-disposition, rooted in the history of slavery, that the white man was....."better".

This myth is still evident. Why are dark skinned blacks made fun of by lighter skinned blacks? Why are light-skinned non-whites viewed as "more attractive" than darker-skinned non-whites? Why is straight hair (a predominantly "white" trait) considered glamorous among black women?

THINK!

White people consist of approximately 1/10th of the world's population, therefore effectively being the "minority", yet, the people running the show are...white. Are white people smarter? Better?

No. It's a perception perpetrated by a racist system.

The fact that the current president of the United States is non-white does not change the psychology of the situation. It is a self-perpetuating myth which is fed from the psychology within, which has been sown for years and years to the point that it is accepted as truth.

When you think about famous Blacks, do you think about W.E.B. Dubois, Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr., ....or do you think about your favorite athlete or musical artist? Do you think about people who changed the world, great thinkers, great inventors, great leaders, or do you think about "performers"?

Why is that? Think.

White Privilege is real.....you just have to know what it is to understand it.

[BrushMyCage]

even in the philippines white privilage exists

[BodiesInFlight]

Always makes me laugh

[Spit Dialect]

Always makes me laugh

Classic....hahaha

The thing is, conservatives are desperate when it comes to these obvious social issues. For example, the whole "religious rights" nonsense that is going on right now is hilarious.

Conservatives are making the argument that serving gay people is a violation of their religious rights. So basically their argument is that we need to tolerate the intolerant...lol

I can't make this stuff up.

Then there's the issue of "reverse racism" which is in line with white privilege. They see a world that most don't live in, and don't understand why everyone can't pull themselves up from their boot straps and make it like they did. When most didn't "make it" but where born into a better economic status than 99% of the country.

Remember when Mitt Romney said if you want to go to college, all you have to do is ask your parents for 50 grand? Conservatives live in a bubble, they don't see the realities of what is going on in this country, and the consequences of centuries of racism.

[Canelo Phresh]

white privilege is real, but it shouldnt have enough effect on the black community as a whole to the point where it is preventing black people from achieving their full potential.

The problem I see with American blacks is that they conflate political power with economic success. That is the reason why so many blacks voted for Obama, believing if they elected "one of their own" it would somehow advance them economically.

Having economic success for your community as a whole is a helluva lot more important than seeing people who look like you in positions of power or in movie roles.

Asians on the other hand are basically invisible politically, yet prosper economically, on average.

You're completely right, and your argument will be ignored. Asians experienced racism and slavery, yet overcome adversity with every new generation of immigrants. This is the argument liberals duck and dodge at every point. It won't be addressed, and if the debate corners them with these facts, they will dismiss it with some conflated, 1 sentence response.

[Spit Dialect]

You're completely right, and your argument will be ignored. Asians experienced racism and slavery, yet overcome adversity with every new generation of immigrants. This is the argument liberals duck and dodge at every point. It won't be addressed, and if the debate corners them with these facts, they will dismiss it with some conflated, 1 sentence response.

Asians did not experience the same level of racism in this country, and internment camps do not compare to the trans Atlantic slave trade that built this country.

Let's put things into perspective and be real. As I stated, it's more to do with economics, but race is used as a tool to legitimize the bigotry and hatred pointed at these groups.

You can see it in Eastern Europe where everyone is white, yet the poor are kept that way because of tribal or racial divides. They stay poor because of lack of education, and yes, discrimination from the more dominant group.

[Canelo Phresh]

I apologize for the excessive length of this post; but this is a hugely important topic to me and I don't want to understate it's significance.

There is a huge misunderstanding to the term "white privilege".

Simply put (as simply as I can put it), it is the "privilege" of being born white.

Now, what does this mean? Are their poor white people? Absolutely. "White Privilege" has nothing to do with how much money you have or what part of town you grew up in, or what kind of education you received. It's a mind-set, a point of view, a perspective based on the color of your skin and the surroundings and conditions of your environment based on that birthright, so to speak.

No white person can ever "know" what it's like to be anything "but white"...FACT. This is who you are and the experience you have had in life; and every perception in how you view the world is grounded in that reality, regardless of how non-prejudicial you think you are or try to be. Regardless of how open-minded you are, the color of your skin colors the world around you, based on the way everything is set up before you came into this world.

"Racism" is a system, "Prejudice" is a perspective, an attitude, a bias, a bigotry; it is personal. When you hear people talk about "reverse-racism", they are speaking ignorantly. What they are referring to is "prejudice" based on "racism".

"White Privilege" is real simply because the movers and the shakers, the people who control the world and the economics of it are "White". They don't care about poor white people any more than they care about poor black people, poor brown people, etc; but to keep their "classism" alive, they have to keep their potential opposition in "its place" and keep the money flowing into their pockets. Poor white people just happen to luck out in a few ways because they happened to be born with the same skin-tone as those running the show. They don't feel like it; but how would they know? Once again, you cannot "know" what it is like to be anything but the race you are. If you think race doesn't matter, you're fooling yourself.

If you need evidence of this system, all you have to do is a comparative analysis of the prison population and jail sentences for similar crimes by people of different races. Statistically speaking, white people serve less time than blacks do for committing the same crime. Statistically speaking, there are still more white people in the United States than there are black people, yet there are more black people in prison to whites proportionally. Why?

Why is it Black people and other non-whites are regularly profiled by police? Are they more dangerous? More likely to be "criminals"?

Someone brought up housing. While there is truth in the statement that you make your own fortune, it is undeniable that a non-white has to work harder to get ahead and get out of an unfortunate situation than a white does, which is, of course, where Affirmative Action comes into play....supposedly. However, in many ways, "Affirmative Action" is racist because while it proposes to help the non-white get ahead in the world, it also sets the bar lower for them, thus controlling how hard someone pushes themselves in an attempt to allegedly "right a wrong".

Lets look at the Well-fare system. While, no, not all well-fare recipients are non-white, statistically, there are more impoverished non-whites than whites. The well-fare system is designed to keep people down because it discourages escaping it. It is altruistic, ideally; but in reality, it is a hindrance in it's current form. I am not saying not to help our underprivileged. What I am saying is the system, while in the best of circumstances, does aid people who need it, it also makes it very hard to escape it's clutches, thus, making you dependent on the state. While there are whites on well-fare as well, as I stated earlier, those running the show don't care anymore about poor whites than poor blacks. They care about power and if you have someone content to "stay dependent", they won't rise up and earn power for themselves. This is a form of control.

I've known people who had to get on well-fare to support their family; and the moment they found a job, which didn't quite pay enough to support that family (an all too common occurrence these days), their well-fare benefits were cut significantly, making it even harder to get by. It would have been easier for them to have stayed on well-fare.

Control.

Here's an interesting piece of information. Look up Black-owned businesses before the Civil Rights amendment. Ironically, while segregation was the norm, Black-owned businesses, percentage-wise, were doing better statistically than after segregation ended. So much so, that many of them were targeted by jealous racist whites of the era. A prime example of this can be found in the history of Greenwood Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the "Black Wall Street" was booming in the midst of a predominantly white community. Whites in the area, so angered by the success and financial stability of area Blacks, they rioted in 1921 and burned most of it to the ground. This is the basis of the Gap Band's hit from years ago, "You Dropped the Bomb on Me.....not some really hot chick.

Don't believe me, look up Greenwood, in 1921. Most Americans are unaware of it.

The end of segregation, ironically, also marked the beginning of a downwards spiral of Black-owned businesses.

Am I suggesting going back to segregation? No. Absolutely not.

I am trying to point out, "why" this happened. Segregation forced Blacks to help themselves, because White businesses did not cater to them. After segregation ended, Blacks now were considered (theoretically) equal; but all it did was bring more "black money" to white establishments, thus enhancing the white-owned establishments and putting the black-owned establishments at a disadvantage because many of their former patrons sought what?

To be "equal" to the White man because of a psychological pre-disposition, rooted in the history of slavery, that the white man was....."better".

This myth is still evident. Why are dark skinned blacks made fun of by lighter skinned blacks? Why are light-skinned non-whites viewed as "more attractive" than darker-skinned non-whites? Why is straight hair (a predominantly "white" trait) considered glamorous among black women?

THINK!

White people consist of approximately 1/10th of the world's population, therefore effectively being the "minority", yet, the people running the show are...white. Are white people smarter? Better?

No. It's a perception perpetrated by a racist system.

The fact that the current president of the United States is non-white does not change the psychology of the situation. It is a self-perpetuating myth which is fed from the psychology within, which has been sown for years and years to the point that it is accepted as truth.

When you think about famous Blacks, do you think about W.E.B. Dubois, Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr., ....or do you think about your favorite athlete or musical artist? Do you think about people who changed the world, great thinkers, great inventors, great leaders, or do you think about "performers"?

Why is that? Think.

White Privilege is real.....you just have to know what it is to understand it.

Asians experienced racism and slavery in America, why are they doing better than those whites, with their leg up on everybody with their white privilege? Your whole opinion is based off of social justice, which essentially calls for revenge on whites. I have to be honest, the starbucks race conversation is great. Ideas like white privilege and social justice, when debated in their merits, fall apart fast. I'm white, grew up poor, had to work a hard labor job to make a buck. All of my white friends grew up poor, guess what? We're all still relatively poor. Clawing to make it up to the next social class. We grew up on the east side of Vegas. Poor white, poor latino, and poor black families that had mostly broken homes. We all experienced hardship based on economic circumstances. Not on race. Our moderate successes and failures have been entirely based off of our hardwork and abstaining from addiction, or lack of hardwork and addiction. I want these subjects spoken about more often and in the public. Because they lose ground very fast with blue collar democrats, a large voting demographic for the party that wants to use victimization and division to keep people poor and at odds with each other.

[El-blanco]

Classic....hahaha

The thing is, conservatives are desperate when it comes to these obvious social issues. For example, the whole "religious rights" nonsense that is going on right now is hilarious.

Conservatives are making the argument that serving gay people is a violation of their religious rights. So basically their argument is that we need to tolerate the intolerant...lol

I can't make this stuff up.

Then there's the issue of "reverse racism" which is in line with white privilege. They see a world that most don't live in, and don't understand why everyone can't pull themselves up from their boot straps and make it like they did. When most didn't "make it" but where born into a better economic status than 99% of the country.

Remember when Mitt Romney said if you want to go to college, all you have to do is ask your parents for 50 grand? Conservatives live in a bubble, they don't see the realities of what is going on in this country, and the consequences of centuries of racism.

Haha that idiot actually said that out loud? And ya, you're right, I've worked with a few multi millionaires and they are completely oblivious to reality. They think they're smarter and worked harder than people that can't get ahead. Meanwhile daddy gave them a head start, all they had to do was not screw it up.

[K-DOGG]

Asians experienced racism and slavery in America, why are they doing better than those whites, with their leg up on everybody with their white privilege? Your whole opinion is based off of social justice, which essentially calls for revenge on whites. I have to be honest, the starbucks race conversation is great. Ideas like white privilege and social justice, when debated in their merits, fall apart fast. I'm white, grew up poor, had to work a hard labor job to make a buck. All of my white friends grew up poor, guess what? We're all still relatively poor. Clawing to make it up to the next social class. We grew up on the east side of Vegas. Poor white, poor latino, and poor black families that had mostly broken homes. We all experienced hardship based on economic circumstances. Not on race. Our moderate successes and failures have been entirely based off of our hardwork and abstaining from addiction, or lack of hardwork and addiction. I want these subjects spoken about more often and in the public. Because they lose ground very fast with blue collar democrats, a large voting demographic for the party that wants to use victimization and division to keep people poor and at odds with each other.

Asians, while definitely experiencing prejudice, slavery, etc., were never the "focus" of "slavery" that the black man was, nor did they lose their identity of who they were, which is a strength, in and of itself; and this is part of what has allowed them to combat the experience.

The world is definitely about scraping to get by and working your way out of a hole, if you were born in challenging economic circumstances. I never said otherwise.

I merely pointed out the facts. Most of the problem, in my opinion, is about a mindset which has been established through years of oppression, which must be overcome.

The answer revolves more around re-education and removal of cultural bias in the school system. Ask yourself what the perception is (and you know it is there, if you are honest with yourself) of different races of kids in school. How does this affect how each child is treated?

If you are told, or it is implied that you are "less than" from an early age on up, it affects you psychologically as an adult.

I'm not suggesting we, as a society, pander to any one race or anyone. I'm suggesting more awareness to how we do treat each other, how our children are approached while in school, how they are taught and motivated.

I'm suggesting we ask the questions "why" when it comes to disproportionate convictions concerning drug and criminal offenses.

I'm suggesting we put "the system" under the microscope and be brutally honest.....and then take whatever means we need to take to "fix it."