OldSoul : About white privilege

[OldSoul]

white privilege​

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.

Manifestations of white privileged thinking (how white people view the world)

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live.

3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

6. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization", I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

9. 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 that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can deal with my hair.

10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

For the rest, click here:
http://whgbetc.com/ifbm/white-privilege.html

 

[cherryblossom]

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

• Daily effects of white privilege
• Elusive and fugitive
• Earned strength, unearned power

"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group"
Peggy McIntosh

Through work to bring materials from women's studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to women's statues, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can't or won't support the idea of lessening men's. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.

Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of while privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.

Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women's studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, "having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?"

complete here: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

 

[cherryblossom]

 

[cherryblossom]

A Definitive Guide To White Privilege​

....White: Essays on Race and Culture

0) White privilege, like whiteness itself, is intangible.
1) The problem with race in America is that people from all sorts of backgrounds coast through life without realizing how race still matters. They will make blanket statements like “we don’t have slavery anymore” or “there’s a black president now” or, even worse, “all of that stuff happened so long ago.” But that’s just it – it didn’t happen all that long ago, actually, and it is still happening. Cultural amnesia.
2) Whenever “diversity” or “race” comes up as a way to create opportunities for minorities, someone will say, “Race shouldn’t matter as much as merit. I don’t think people should be judged based on the color of their skin. Everyone should be judged without regards to their skin.” And they’re exactly right.
3) Because race isn’t about skin color. Race is a systemic, governmental, juridical set of processes rooted in history that have stabilized racial inequalities. So, for instance, race isn’t that I’m white and you’re black. Race is the law that says we can’t drink out of the same water fountain or that you have to sit in the back of the bus. Race is the law that says we can’t get married. Race is the fact that if you were black in the 1950s you had limited home-buying opportunities. Race is the common stereotype that if a black family moves into a neighborhood, property values go down. Race is targeting minorities for expensive, subprime mortgages.
4) A person’s white privilege is reflected they second they wonder why people are still talking about race.
5) But it is reflected even more if they act offended, angered and annoyed if another person calls out and interrogates their whiteness/white privilege. They feel that talking about whiteness is reverse discrimination.
6) There are 2.3 million incarcerated people in the United States. African American men count for more than 1 million people in jail. Black men are jailed six times more frequently than white men.
7) “I don’t see race” or “we should all just look past race” are two general statements that can only be said by a person for whom race is not a daily struggle/issue/negotiation.
CONTINUED HERE:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/anonymous/2013/04/a-definitive-guide-to-white-privilege/

 

[cherryblossom]

17 Deplorable Examples Of White Privilege

And this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.posted on October 27, 2013


1. Because of white privilege, you’ll never have to worry about becoming the victim of law enforcement officers.

Think about Jonathan Ferrell, Amadou Diallo, even Oscar Grant. It isn’t a coincidence that hundreds of incidents like these have been happening for years.

2. Thankfully, you’ll never have to know what it feels like to see your teenage son’s death being mocked.

Via newsone.com
Yes, that is someone dressed as Trayvon Martin. Yes, you’re looking at someone in blackface. In 2013.
3. Because of white privilege, you’ll never have to inform your children of the harsh realities of systemic racism.


4. White privilege means you can be articulate and well spoken without people being “surprised.”


.....continued....
http://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon/17-harrowing-examples-of-white-privilege-9hu9