white privilege

i got this in an email forward from a friend, and she doesn't know who wrote it originally, but it is very thought provoking and brilliant and to me, somehow...disheartening. i am on the phones at the democratic party office in my city, i have my yard sign on order...i always vote. but i am feeling hopeless and it scares me.

food for thought:

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.