White Privilege

My wife’s family has managed to accumulate a fair bit and will have a modest amount to pass on to their next generation.

@thefourthruffian has some good insights on that too.

Why should a white American citizen have privilege over a black American citizen (whose ancestors may have arrived here before the white American’s) just because whites are the majority? Why is that not wrong?

It has nothing to do with whether or not the concept is wrong. It’s because many people expect the rest of us to change our lives on a micro level because of it.

Who grants the privilege? I’m privileged… by my family. I’m not rich nor are they, but I actually have been granted some privileges others never will get. What shall I do to make this fair?

I’ve met many privileged blacks. And for those who think privelege is unique to whites, I invite you to spend some time in Queens, NY, so you can see some privilege the common white person has never and never will receive!

What to do: remove the ingrained societal racism which makes it more difficult for people of color to earn the same privileges as a white person. Really, it comes down to simply giving equal opportunity, and not short changing or penalizing someone based on skin tone or other unmericratic characteristics.

TLDR: don’t be a dick. Judge folks based on merit. Realize that on a macro level white folks have had more advantages in this country.

But is it (white privilege) exclusive to white people or is it something humans have done since we developed the ability to obtain and keep things?

There isn’t anything white about it. Its a human trait.

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Understanding what White privilege is to someone else doesn’t address the questions. Many people don’t just expect you to acknowledge it, they want you to DO something about it.

I have plenty of gripes with people’s media driven histeria of ‘Dem trends’ that barely exist in the real world. And it’s entirely possible I’m just being reference anecdotal, but if I could erase every moment I heard someone say ‘check your privilege’ by pulling a hair out of my head, I’d be a bald (slightly happier) man.

The notion is quite commonplace that if a white person earns something, there’s a significantly above average chance they didn’t have to work as hard for it.

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Aren’t the Irish a fairly recent addition to the “white privileged” club? Or were they also privileged during the widespread discrimination they experienced in the 19th century?

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Tough to have white privilege if there are no white people. In Western society, and more specifically the USA, which was one of the last places on Earth to outlaw slavery, it is white privilege. We are talking about western, and usually, American society.

Man, I already had to deal with original sin. Now this? At least there’s baptism.

Exactly! Who with the ability to privilege their own kin is going to withhold from doing so? Also there are ways to privilege people that don’t involve money!

It’s not that you didn’t have to work hard, or as hard. It’s that if you were born with brown skin, all other things being the exact same, you would have faced more obstacles than you did because you were born white. Does that make sense?

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Is “your own” your family, or your race. Privilege your family, do not privilege your race (I’m assuming White). Historically white folks in America have done both.

I doubt most white people privilege their race. And since it’s a generalization, I doubt most white individuals care to hear about how they should hush about this or that…

Who is telling you to hush, and about what? Specifically.

There’s white privilege, along with a whole host of other privileges that can easily nullify it. I should know.

Its use to shut down debate is disgusting.

Which privileges nullify it? And which of those privileges can be gained in a generation or two?

The Kavanaugh debate alone. I can’t remember how many times I had to read “white men” like it was some kind of scare trigger. Then, when Collins voted yes, it was because she supposedly embraced her white privilege over her femininity. It’s become a stupid bludgeon now that get’s people like Trump elected.

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