White Privilege

[Bubonic]

white privilege, a social relation
1. a. A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities.
b. A special advantage or benefit of white persons; with reference to divine dispensations, natural advantages, gifts of fortune, genetic endowments, social relations, etc.
2. A privileged position; the possession of an advantage white persons enjoy over non–white persons.
3. a. The special right or immunity attaching to white persons as a social relation; prerogative.
b. display of white privilege, a social expression of a white person or persons demanding to be treated as a member or members of the socially privileged class.
4. a. To invest white persons with a privilege or privileges; to grant to white persons a particular right or immunity; to benefit or favor specially white persons; to invest white persons with special honorable distinctions.
b. To avail oneself of a privilege owing to one as a white person.
5. To authorize or license of white person or persons what is forbidden or wrong for non–whites; to justify, excuse.
6. To give to white persons special freedom or immunity from some liability or burden to which non–white persons are subject; to exempt.

http://whiteprivilege.com

Daily effects of white privilege as noted by Peggy McIntosh.

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



Please support your responses.

[terry78]

No one will ever openly admit this exists, but I do feel it's a subtle thing. Believe it or not, there are people in existence that will still take take into account that a white guy will or won't do things that I will or will not do, even if the whole thing is unfounded. I thank the media for that, personally.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by terry78

No one will ever openly admit this exists, but I do feel it's a subtle thing. Believe it or not, there are people in existence that will still take take into account that a white guy will or won't do things that I will or will not do, even if the whole thing is unfounded. I thank the media for that, personally.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Lighthouse]

Yes, it exists.

[ScottyBBadd]

More like lack of it.

[Erzengel]

I only get partial white privilege.

[Bubonic]

Please, could you elaborate.
Obviously your life experience is leading you to such answers, so work us through your thought process and reasoning.

[AndThePickles]

I think that as a female and being in an interracial relationship, I don't have as much "privilege" as a white male would. I also think that a lot of such privilege has to do with social class.

[Colossal Spoons]

It sure does

[StorminNorman]

I think all races and all sexes have certain privileges unique to their situations.

A woman can get away with things a man can't. A man can get away with things a woman can't.

Whites get away with some things, blacks others, etc. etc.

[PyroChamber]

So what would be considered "black privilege"?

[Colossal Spoons]

Originally Posted by PyroChamber

So what would be considered "black privilege"?

Our women get away with uncanny amounts of attitude. Not quite Latina levels but still enough to make you wanna strangle somebody.

[Bubonic]

Originally Posted by AndThePickles

I think that as a female and being in an interracial relationship, I don't have as much "privilege" as a white male would. I also think that a lot of such privilege has to do with social class.

The Peggy McIntosh article makes reference to who White Privilege can be compared to the taken for granted privilege men have over women.
Those who do even worse are minority women.

Originally Posted by StorminNorman

I think all races and all sexes have certain privileges unique to their situations.

A woman can get away with things a man can't. A man can get away with things a woman can't.

Whites get away with some things, blacks others, etc. etc.

White Privilege is more pervasive then something like women possibly getting her movie ticket paid for.
It is basically put, a wide assortment of privileges that White people enjoy and don't even realize there is anything special about it.

Its in the way that White people often feel like the norm and treated as such. Just a simple point made in the McIntosh article, the fact that flesh colour is our colour is telling.

I might be doing something stupid with my friends, draw the attention of the police, but because I'm a cute white kid, I'll be let off with a warning.
But that won't be the case for the black kid.

[millennium movies]

Originally Posted by Colossal Spoons

Our women get away with uncanny amounts of attitude. Not quite Latina levels but still enough to make you wanna strangle somebody.

LOL! Yet so true

[millennium movies]

Your from montreal?

[PyroChamber]

Originally Posted by Colossal Spoons

Our women get away with uncanny amounts of attitude. Not quite Latina levels but still enough to make you wanna strangle somebody.

Very true, and of course the situation with the N word.

[Bubonic]

It would take a few minutes to check out the definition given and to skim over the McIntosh list.
Then a few more to react to them, agreeing or disagreeing.

[Mr. Socko]

Originally Posted by PyroChamber

So what would be considered "black privilege"?

Get to make racist jokes and use the 'n' word without being labeled racist.

[AndThePickles]

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

Haha, this one is funny but usually true. Although, growing up in schools that were majority black, I've encountered the opposite and often been asked about "what white girls like" over the years. However, I think a lot of that has been a joke...when I see a minority get questioned people are normally dead serious

[Arkady Rossovich]

The white right? It's common sence,anyone who is of European origin in America can do anything they choose. Asians can,but it mostly goes to whites. Sad..but it's the unwritten law of the land.

[Bubonic]

Originally Posted by Mr. Socko

Get to make racist jokes and use the 'n' word without being labeled racist.

But how minimal is that compared to not having to worry that your skin colour will affect you getting a home , an important loan, or even a job.

A lot of the racism perpetuated by white people these days is a more subtle, hypocritic form then the old hate racism of before.
A form of it is called "polite" racism, which would be something like a black man going to look for an apartment, the landlord saying the spot has just been taken, even though it hasn't.
It's racism even though it isn't as blatant as "blacks need not apply".

[terry78]

Yes, we do represent our entire race when one of us does something wrong. No one ever says, "those stupid ass white people" when one of them does something stupid. Well, when they kill themselves during bungee jumps...I do.

[AndThePickles]

Originally Posted by terry78

Yes, we do represent our entire race when one of us does something wrong. No one ever says, "those stupid ass white people" when one of them does something stupid. Well, when they kill themselves during bungee jumps...I do.

That raises an interesting point...I hear a LOT of generalizations about white people and I certainly hear things like "those stupid ass white people" all the time, but you don't hear it in as public of a way as you would with minorities.

[terry78]

I think when guys I know say stuff like that, we know it's not going to be done in a malicious manner. I've said that I see white guys out in 0 degree weathrer in t-shirts and shorts and said, wtf. But that won't ever deter them from anything. But black stereotypes are things that have been said for decades about black people, so it stings a bit more, even if some are true.

[Arkady Rossovich]

Everything is given to whites. This is why some get "bored" and do these crazy things,they even act like blacks. Or degrade themselfs.